11 October 2024
Plans to build a solar farm on a runway at Blackpool Airport have been submitted to the local council.
If approved, the solar farm would mean runway 13/31, mainly used for crosswind operations, would close. It would leave just the main runway 28/10.
The airport management supports the project which was announced by Blackpool Council on 29 August 2024, with an unusually short consultation period of just over two weeks, ending on 18 September.
Steve Peters, managing director of Blackpool Airport said, “This is an opportunity for the airport to make best use of the land by repurposing it so that it creates a revenue stream for the airport while reducing our energy bills and supporting our ten-year plan to become more financially sustainable.
“Installing solar farms at airports is increasingly common, with operational farms at Gatwick, Belfast, Southend, Newquay and plans for more at Edinburgh, Glasgow and other airports in the UK and across the world.
“Runway 28/10 at 1,800 metres long provides good capability for a busy airport which handles around 40,000 flight movements per year, and this move would support our wider plans to improve the airport even further in the coming years.”
That view is disputed by Ian Butter, a planning specialist and private pilot.
In a detailed open letter, Mr Butter said, “A solar farm can be sited almost anywhere, an airport runway cannot. Once that runway is lost to use there is no prospect of it ever being replaced. And the retention of runway 13/31 is of significance not only as a means of supporting the primary business users of the airport, but also for flight safety reasons.
“It is incumbent upon developers, those responsible for operating the airport, and the two local authorities concerned, to definitively demonstrate and fully justify – in public – why there is no longer any need for runway 13/31, before it is permanently lost.”
Mr Butter also points out that operational safety may also be compromised, and revenue from flying operations reduced, affecting aviation businesses based on the airport.
“The loss of runway 13/31 does not mean that aircraft can just simply transfer to the main runway instead. It may mean that they cannot land or take-off at all.”
The wind rose shows how many hours per year the wind blows from the indicated direction. Image: Ian Butter
Mr Butter’s letter includes an analysis of wind direction summarised in the illustration above.
The justification given by Blackpool Council for the proposed 20MVA solar farm is that it would allow the airport to generate its own renewable electricity, reducing energy bills and its carbon footprint, while also enabling Blackpool Council to reduce its overall net electricity consumption by up to 75%.
Another reason the council cites is “an emerging masterplan for building new hangars and aviation facilities closer to the runway would also mean it closing in future years”.
