Manchester City is planning to install almost 11,000 solar panels on the roof of its training ground
Manchester City is planning a solar project that it believes would make it one of the largest producers of renewable energy in world football.
The Premier League Champions are seeking planning permission from Manchester City Council to install 10,887 solar panels on their training facility and the Joie Stadium.
Pete Bradshaw, Manchester City’s director of sustainability says it will “completely offset the power required to run the day-today operations of the City Football Academy by becoming one of football’s largest producers of self-supplied, renewable energy.”
He adds that, with the aim of becoming net carbon zero by 2030, the club knows that the “production and consumption of renewable energy has an incredibly important role to play”.
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This new project builds on Manchester City’s existing commitment to renewable energy which has seen the club purchase 100 per cent renewable electricity for the last eight years.
The City Football Academy has already achieved the gold standard under Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design guidelines - the most widely used green building rating system.
Where are the solar panels being installed?
Manchester City is looking to install 3,800 panels over footpaths and pitch-side areas at the City
Football Academy. Another 3,000 could be added to the roof of the Joie Stadium, home to its women's and academy teams. The remaining 3,942 solar panels will be installed on the roofs of other buildings on the same site.
The football club says this will generate up to 4.39 MWh of energy every year - enough energy to power more than 2,000 homes.
Manchester City is expecting to have the panels in place by the end of the year and has said they will be installed and managed by Manchester-based renewable energy developer Clearvolt.
The club is hoping to become the first Premier League team to undertake a project like this.
Which other football teams are embracing solar power?
Plenty of other football teams have also embarked on renewable energy projects. In 2022, Turkish club Galatasaray won a Guinness World Record after installing thousands of solar panels on its stadium roof.
The club and the energy company running the system, Enerjisa, were presented with a certificate acknowledging the feat of producing 4.2 megawatts from 10,404 panels on the roof of the Ali Sami Yen Spor Kompleksi Stadium in Istanbul.
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Stadium director Ali Çelikkıran said at the time that savings from the panels equate to the energy use of 2,000 homes and would cut 3,250 tonnes of carbon every year.
Dutch team Ajax and British team Plymouth Argyle also have solar panels on their stadium roofs.