Our Client

The Royal Air Force operates 832 aircraft, with 33,200 active personnel, 1,940 Royal Auxiliary Air Force personnel, and 3,300 reserve personnel across thirty-one UK bases and two overseas bases. In March 2021, the Ministry of Defence published their Climate Change and Sustainability Strategic Approach, committing to Net Zero by 2050, with the RAF aiming to achieve the goal a decade earlier.

The Challenge

As the RAF have started to work through the three stages of the Ministry of Defence Climate Change and Sustainability Strategic Approach, they needed to assess and quantify opportunities to decarbonise their operations across the property estate in line with their sustainability goals.

Our Solution

Working with the client we identified four RAF bases to carry out a detailed assessment of potential rooftop, carport, and ground-mounted solar installations. This involved surveying 1,800 rooftops and the surrounding landscape using both LiDAR and GIS analysis, predicting solar radiation at 30 minutes intervals. This timing is important as it allows us to ensure that future power generation forecasts are based on energy demand and can be cross-referenced to calculate import and export requirements for the national grid.

Analysis of each rooftop was then performed using computer vision tools to isolate only those locations with suitable space for solar panel installation, calculating the number of panels that could be installed in each location.

The Results

With the help of our intelligent technology, we identified 266 buildings suitable for rooftop solar installation, 11 sites for deploying ground mount solar panel installation, and 54 carports for deploying solar carports. This identified carbon emission savings of 31,558 tonnes p.a. through self-generating electricity from renewable solar energy. We are continuing to provide ongoing support to help the RAF scope out both solar potential and the design specifications required to achieve the best possible results.