Multinational energy company E.ON and the Peel Ports Group have commenced commercial operations on the first phase of a 25MW solar array on the roof of the Alexandra Dock warehouse, part of the Peel Ports Group’s operations in its home city of Liverpool.
A total of 6,926 solar panels have been installed in the warehouse, around a seventh of the 48,000-panel system that the companies expect to install “in many more buildings across the Port of Liverpool”. In 2024, Peel Ports Group said it expects the entire portfolio to be operational by mid-2026, although at the time it said the portfolio would have a total capacity of 31 MW, which has since been downgraded.
Yet the facility will be the largest rooftop solar project in Britain and is expected to supply around a quarter of the Port of Liverpool’s annual electricity needs.
“By transforming the roofs of our warehouses into clean energy assets, we are taking practical, large-scale action to decarbonise a crucial national gateway that enables regional trade and economic growth,” said Lewis MacIntyre, managing director of port services at Peel Ports Group.
The project is the result of a 25-year agreement between Peel Ports Group and E.ON, with the latter financing and delivering the project. Peel Ports Group aims to meet half of its electricity demand with renewable energy by the end of this decade, and achieve net-zero emissions from all its operations by 2040.
Last year, Tom Hutchison, CEO of the Montrose Port Authority in Scotland, told our colleagues PV Tech Premium that securing clean energy is a priority for the UK ports industry, and that the ultimate goal is to be involved in the generation of clean electricity on siteinstead of having to buy power from an external generator.
“It’s good that it’s a guaranteed green source of the grid, but in the future it only makes sense if we manage to be a bit more autonomous, if you like, and start generating our own energy,” Hutchison said at the Clean Power 2030 Summits.
In the months since, a number of British ports have invested in the clean energy sector and achieved returns. Last July, the international port of Portsmouth reported this installing a rooftop solar project had reduced energy bills by almost £140,000while BW ESS announced this in November plans to build a battery energy storage system (BESS). at the Marchwood Industrial Park in Southampton.
