First Solar Energy Plant at Stockholm Skavsta Airport
Stockholm Skavsta Flygplats AB plans in collaboration with a business partner to build a solar energy plant in the airport area. This will be the first larger solar energy plant in a Swedish airport, and will make the facility fully in line with the Stockholm Skavsta Airport’s majority owner VINCI Airports’ environmental strategy to halve the group’s carbon footprint by 2030 and to become net carbon neutral by 2050.
The solar energy plant is expected to be commissioned in the summer of 2021 and will provide C02 neutral power to the airport operations and to the area of activity planned for the area, a few years ahead.
Environmental Strategy: AirPact
VINCI Airports is the first airport operator to have launched an international environmental strategy – called AirPact – with focus on four goals to be reached until 2030; besides reducing the O2 emissions by 50%, also reduce the water consumption per traffic unit by 50%, zero waste in landfills, and stop the use of pesticides on our infrastructure network.
Stockholm Skavsta Airport has just been accredited with ACA level 1 in September 2020 (Airport Carbon Accreditation, a worldwide reference for airports infrastructure regarding the reduction of their carbon emissions) and is expected to obtain the ISO 14001 certification by 2021. The airport will continue the ACA program and increase the level of accreditation level 3+ by 2025, which means carbon neutrality.
As one of the 45 airports of VINCI Airports, Stockholm Skavsta Airport is fully committed to meet VINCI Airports Airpact expectations and this leads to this solar farm project.
CEO of Stockholm Skavsta Airpor, Cédric Fechter, said:As a VINCI Airports infrastructure, all our employees are fully focused on the global environmental stakes and are working hard on our mission to become a “0 net carbon emission” airport. Fully supported by the VINCI Airports environmental policy and together with the Municipality of Nyköping, Stockholm Skavsta Airport is proud to stand for such a sustainable project for our airport and the territory we serve. We will actively continue our strive to find ways of making aviation more sustainable and to interact with society for a better environment.
Resell of Surplus Green Energy
The solar energy plant will provide C02 neutral power to the airport operations, but there will also be an opportunity to resell the surplus green energy. Stockholm Skavsta Flygplats AB has therefore contacted the Nyköping municipality with an offer to sign an agreement for the surplus green locally produced energy.
Today Nyköpings Vattenkraft AB supplies the electricity used in the municipality’s operations. This is done partly through self-produced hydropower, but also through the company purchasing power from electricity companies.
Complement to Hydropower
As part of Nyköping Municipality’s work to achieve the Agenda 2030 goals, green locally produced energy could be purchased as a complement to the selfproduced hydropower. Now the Municipality propose to Nyköping Vattenkraft AB to investigate this issue and in the meantime, it is beneficial for both parties to have an agreement.
Mayor of Nyköping Municipality, Urban Granström, said:Many municipalities in Sweden today build their own photovoltaic systems. Through a collaboration between Nyköpings Vattenkraft AB and Stockholm Skavsta Airport, the municipality of Nyköping could gain access to green locally produced electricity without own investment.
The conditions for purchasing this from Stockholm Skavsta Flygplats AB must therefore be investigated in accordance with a decision by the municipal board.
This article was originally published by Stockholm Skavsta Airport.
