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Thu, 15/10/2020 - 11:58
Brisbane Airport Corporation (BAC) remains committed to renewable energy across all areas of the airport, with ongoing considerations into how we can effectively offset our carbon emissions.
Brisbane Airport is open and operational, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and as such, the power required to light, heat, and cool each of the facilities is significant.
As part of our ongoing sustainability strategy, in 2018 BAC embarked on a project to invest $11 million into the development of a 6-Megawatt solar farm on Airport land, consisting of over 18,000 panels and spanning an area of 36,000 square metres (or more than twice the size of the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG)).
Over 18,000 panels were installed at six locations across the airport within an eight month period.
Fast facts
- In FY20, the solar panels at Brisbane Airport generated 9.72 GWh of renewable energy
- The Brisbane Airport Solar Farm is the largest rooftop solar panel installation at an Australian airport and the largest commercial rooftop solar system in the Southern Hemisphere.
- Brisbane Airport’s International Terminal alone supports 1.8 MW with about 6,500 panels covering more than 22,000 square metres.
- Since 2012 BAC has had an extensive energy reduction program in place resulting in the completion of 40 projects which collectively save more than 8 GWh per year.
- These panels will generate close to 18% of BAC’s annual energy consumption and reduce our carbon emissions by over 7,000 tonnes each year. This is the equivalent to powering 750 households.
- The solar energy generated per year at BAC is equivalent to powering over 1,700 Australian homes for a year, with carbon offset equal to planting over 50,000 trees or taking 1,500 cars off the road each year.
Next steps
BAC continues to look at opportunities to decrease our carbon emissions, with a target to add to our solar farm with a further 5MW of capacity by 2025.