Solar farm save £300k on energy bills

Nearly 9,000 solar panels are now live providing power to the facility, cutting £370,000 from the site’s electricity bill every year.

It is expected the panels will provide nearly a fifth of the site’s peak electrical consumption required to manufacture component parts for the Eurofighter Typhoon and F-35 Lightning II aircraft as well as the wings for the Hawk jet training aircraft, assembled at Warton.

BAE Systems installed the solar farm in April 2015 as part of an initiative to be more cost effective and reduce carbon emissions.

It was built on part of the disused runway at the site, which employs more than 4000 people.

Shaun Costain, a team leader in the manufacturing operations team, said: “Overall this delivered a cost saving to the business of more than £300,000 which we can invest into making our products and services more affordable for our customers. Above all though there are the obvious environmental benefits with this scheme, which we are proud to deliver.”