Faro solar power plant: producing green energy at our airports
The climate emergency drives us to make major changes to cut our carbon emissions. That is why we decided to harness the potential of solar energy in our airports, for example recently installing a photovoltaic power plant in Faro, Portugal.
Facilitating the expansion of renewable energies
Renewable energy production infrastructure requires space. In a world where available land is increasingly rare, airports provide a potential source of opportunity, especially for photovoltaic energy. That is why, for many years, we have been developing solar plants at our airports, in accordance with our ambition to achieve carbon neutrality at all our airports within the European Union by 2030 and worldwide by 2050. In September 2022, Faro became the first airport in Portugal to have its own solar power array. The 3 MWp capacity installation now supplies 30% of the airport’s electricity, avoiding 1,500 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year.
Leveraging complementary skills to power the energy transition
Financed, developed and operated by our subsidiary SunMind (VINCI Concessions), the new plant sells the electricity generated to VINCI Airports through an onsite power purchase agreement. SunMind also entrusted Omexom (VINCI Energies) with the supply, installation and commissioning of the 6,440 photovoltaic panels that make up the array. Once the panels were installed, the teams from Omexom connected the solar plant to the airport’s own electricity grid. This is just another example of the ways in which our Group is harnessing synergies to power the energy transition.
1 500
tonnes of CO2 emissions avoided each year
