Operator VINCI Airports has announced it will launch a 14-hectare solar power plant at Lyon-Saint Exupéry airport.
With a capacity of 20 MWp, the facility will produce 24 GWh of green electricity a year, equivalent to the consumption of 9.000 inhabitants, according to VINCI.
The power provided "will be injected into the grid to supply the neighbouring communities, avoiding the emission of nearly 1,600 tons of CO2 per year", VINCI announced.
"This allows us to decarbonise our own consumption, but also to contribute to the energy transition of the territories, by injecting the electricity we produce into the network, as we will soon do in Lyon," said Nicolas Notebaert, chief executive of VINCI Concessions and president of VINCI Airports.
The project, which is scheduled to open in 2024, has been awarded to a consortium of Neoen and SunMind, VINCI Concessions' photovoltaic subsidiary, which will design, finance, build and operate the plant until 2047.
VINCI Airports has put in place capacity of more than 40 MWp at solar plants at airports in the UK, Portugal, Brazil and the Dominican Republic.