Australia’s fifth-largest airport triples size of rooftop solar system

Adelaide Airport has completed the installation more than 3,800 solar panels on its international and domestic terminal rooftops, adding a further 2.2 megawatts of generation capacity and tripling the size of total PV installed.

In a update last week, Adelaide Airport said the solar expansion project, led by Iberdrola Australia, takes the cumulative total of PV installed at the airport to 3.5 MWp to generate approximately 3,282MWh of energy annually.

According to managing director Brenton Cox, the expansion will result in Adelaide Airport exceeding its target to self-generate 15% of its precinct electricity needs from onsite renewable energy.

The remainder of the electricity currently consumed at Adelaide Airport, Australia’s fifth largest in terms of passenger numbers, is sourced from renewable sources – largely through offtakes from the three Lake Bonney wind farms.

The Adelaide Airport started its rooftop solar journey all the way back in 2007, when a small terminal rooftop array was installed.

The addition of a 1.17 MW solar carpark system, completed in mid-2016, boosted the airport’s total capacity up to 1.28MW, supplying around 10 per cent of its electricity needs.

At the time of its installation, Adelaide Airport’s 1.17MW rooftop solar system was Australia’s largest airport solar installation, but that record has since been shattered by larger airports across the country.

Adelaide Airport does lay claim to at least one title, though, having announced in December 2024 – after the solar expansion plans were first announced – that it had become Australia’s first major airport to reach carbon neutrality.