The company that runs Belgium’s largest airport at Zaventem in Flemish Brabant is launching a pilot project to sell electricity generated by the airport's solar panels to the residents of municipalities close to the airport. Brussels Airport promises that an average household will save around €124 per annum on electricity if they switch to green energy generated by the airport’s solar panels.
The pilot project is being conducted in collaboration with the sustainable energy platform Bolt. The first 100 families from Kortenberg, Machelen, Steenokkerzeel and Zaventem (Flemish Brabant) to sign up will be supplied with electricity from the airport's solar panels from next month.
After a year, they will be able to choose a new energy supplier. The solar panels at Brussels Airport currently supply around 9,200 megawatt hours of green electricity per year. The airport operator wants to almost triple this amount to 24,000 megawatt hours by 2027.
Stargate
The solar panels are part of a raft of measures aimed at making Brussels Airport’s operation carbon neutral by 2030. This only applies to the buildings and infrastructure managed by the airport operator and not to CO₂ emissions from aircraft. Brussels Airport says that the pilot project is intended to test on a small scale the practical feasibility of a participative project involving the airport and local residents”.
The pilot project forms part of the European Stargate project, in which Brussels Airport is working with a consortium of 21 partners to develop initiatives to improve the sustainability of airports and aviation.