Surrey Sports Park Switches on Solar Array to Help Meet Net Zero Target

Published on: 15 Aug, 2025
Updated on: 17 Aug, 2025

Solar Array at the University of Surrey

By Alex Pack

Surrey Sports Park has switched on a rooftop solar array of more than 1,500 panels on Monday (August 11), which, the University of Surrey says, could supply up to 30 per cent of the centre’s electricity.

The system, installed on one of Guildford’s largest roofs, is forecast to generate about 728 MWh a year. University managers describe it as the first large-scale project delivered with partner SSE Energy Solutions and a visible step towards the university’s target of reaching net zero by 2030.

The Sports Park is one of the university’s highest energy users, particularly because of its swimming pool. The new installation will help power pool heating, ventilation and cooling on site.

Georgina Agnies, director of university sport, said: “Our members and partners can now use our facilities, get fit and play sport with a smaller carbon footprint. We continue to make large and small changes to reduce our energy use and decarbonise our energy supply. Every day, we strive to get more carbon fit and carbon lean.”

Thomas Pickering, assistant director of sport at Surrey Sports Park, said members had been “incredibly patient” during construction and that the array would cover “between 27 and 30 per cent of all of our energy consumption”, calling it the venue’s biggest single step towards cutting emissions.

The project is part of the university’s eight-point plan to cut energy use, decarbonise supply and drive behaviour change. Head of Sustainability Martin Wiles said the scheme was part of a wider effort to reduce demand and decarbonise the power the university still needs to use: “We will have to have the lights on, we will have to have heating in the winter, so that’s the key aim – to cut what we use and make the rest low-carbon.

“It makes sound financial sense as well as climate sense – the energy you don’t use, you don’t pay for,” he said.

Larger schemes are in the pipeline. A proposed ground-mounted solar farm at Blackwell Farm – with a capacity of around 12 MW – is intended to provide roughly a third of the University’s current electricity needs across all operations, although planning permission is still subject to judicial review.

Canopy solar is also being explored for main car parks, alongside battery and thermal storage and hydrogen trials to tackle heat, which is still largely produced by gas.

University leaders describe themselves as “mildly optimistic” about meeting the 2030 deadline. Professor Bob Nichol, executive lead for sustainability, said recent projects with SSE had proven the university could deliver at scale and quickly: “If planning permission landed tomorrow for the big solar array, we could put shovels in the ground tomorrow.”

The biggest challenge is cutting carbon from heating, which is still largely provided by gas boilers. Plans are being developed to replace this with low-carbon heat powered by solar and stored in batteries, thermal stores or even hydrogen. “The big problem for us is that we’re generating a lot of carbon from [gas] heating,” said Mr Wiles. “We want to replace gas heating
with electric systems powered by our own solar energy.”

Even if the 2030 target is not met in full, managers say they will press on. “Whether it’s done by 2029, 2030 or 2031… we’re going to do this because it’s the right thing to do,” said Professor Nichol. “If we got close – say 70 per cent – it would still be a major achievement, and we wouldn’t stop there.”

“The students here are the future of the campus and the planet. Showing them that there are things we can all do together to make a more sustainable planet – that’s about the best education we can give them. We’re passionate about it here at Surrey, we’re not just doing it because the government’s told us to.”