NATS Swanwick goes solar

The UK’s leading provider of air traffic services, NATS, has installed over 2,600 solar panels on the roof of its control centre in Swanwick, generating up to 10% of the electricity needed to power the site.

It comes as part of NATS’ commitment to becoming a net zero emissions company by 2035 and carbon negative by 2040. This project will provide a significant supplement to NATS’ electric usage at the centre, generating the equivalent of around 334 family homes’ electricity use each year*.

Construction began in late 2023, working with NATS’ facilities management agents Mitie, to install over 2,600 panels on the roof of the Swanwick centre. The project was completed on 17 July and the solar panels are now successfully generating electricity for the centre.

Dave Curtis, Safety and Sustainability Director, NATS, said:

“The deployment of this large-scale project is testament to the excellent work across NATS to reduce our environmental impact and I’m extremely proud to have seen it through to fruition.

“We will continue our efforts to put sustainability at the heart of our decision making as part of the whole aviation industry’s effort to achieve net zero.”

NATS Swanwick handles some of the busiest and most complex airspace in Europe, controlling 200,000 square miles of airspace over England and Wales as well as the complex airspace above London. Air traffic controllers there handle over 1.8 million flights a year.

This project is the first of three large-scale solar installations at NATS’ sites involving some 12,000 panels. Work is underway to fit solar panels to the roof of the Prestwick Centre in Ayrshire and ground-mounted panels will be installed on adjoining land later this year. NATS will also begin installation of smaller-scale solar schemes at remote sites in 2025.

NATS was recently awarded first place in the European Climate Leaders list, a survey of two thousand companies across Europe, for its actions over many years to improve environmental performance. Find out more about NATS’ sustainability efforts here.

*Once all three projects are live, they will generate approximately 13-21% of the Prestwick and Swanwick consumption on average. Collectively, this equates to over the electricity used by more than 1,500 family homes each year. 99.5% of NATS’ electricity comes from green electricity backed by Renewable Energy Generation Guarantees of Origin (REGGO’s) and 96% of NATS gas procurement is from low carbon biogas, backed by Renewable Gas Guarantees of Origin (RGGO’s).

Header image L-R: Tim Bullock, Director Supply Chain, Property & FM; Dave Curtis, Safety and Sustainability Director; Kimberley Watts, Project Manager; and Richard Kimber, Senior Electrical Engineer.