Renewable Energy Project of the Year

Recognising on-site or off-site renewable energy deployments, including power purchase agreements, with clear and evidenced carbon or energy impact.

The finalists

Alcatel Submarine Networks

Decarbonising the Power Supply with Onsite Generation

Alcatel Submarine Networks manufactures submarine telecoms cable at its Greenwich site, where planned production increases sat awkwardly against its decarbonisation commitments. It installed 2,694 solar panels, totalling 1,347kWp, on the large factory roof under a power purchase agreement with Electron Green, avoiding upfront capital and leaving maintenance and performance risk with the developer. Feasibility work covered roof structural integrity and grid connection, and installation was coordinated around a 24-hour manufacturing operation. Construction ran from October 2025 to March 2026, with generation beginning in April. The system is forecast to supply 20% of annual site electricity and cut 165 tonnes of CO2.

AlphaESS UK, Immersa & Quest Power

Mobile CT & MR Scanners

Mobile CT and MRI units used for lung cancer screening have historically run on diesel generators, which must supply the stable voltage and rapid response that imaging equipment demands. AlphaESS UK, Immersa and Quest Power developed an off-grid battery system pairing AlphaESS TB125 units, each 125kW and 261kWh, with 300kVA static transfer switches, configured so the battery meets most daily load and the generator runs only to recharge and cover overnight operation. Following research and field trials, Quest Power committed to 18 systems totalling 3MW and 4.698MWh. Seven were operational by June 2026, with the remainder scheduled to follow.

Equans UK & Ireland

Babraham Road Park & Ride Smart Energy Grid

Equans has built a 2.5MWp solar carport at Cambridgeshire County Council's Babraham Road park and ride, combining 32 electric vehicle charge points and three accessible PAS-compliant points with a 2km private wire that supplies surplus renewable electricity directly to Cambridge University Hospitals. The carport was designed to add generation without losing parking capacity, and construction used hydrotreated vegetable oil in all site machinery, avoiding 109.7 tCO2e. Underground infrastructure and spare capacity were installed for future chargers, including planned bus charging. Over a 30-year life the scheme is expected to generate 65GWh and avoid more than 15,000 tonnes of CO2.

Mars

Pringles Solar Park

Mars has installed a rooftop solar array on the 60,000 square metre warehouse serving its Pringles manufacturing plant at Mechelen in Belgium. The array comprises 13,000 panels with a peak capacity of 8,000kWp. Because the warehouse sits on the opposite side of a railway line from the factory, the electricity is carried to the plant through an underground cable, an arrangement the company describes as unusual at this scale and one which required governmental approvals relating to the railway. Total generation is around 7GWh a year, meeting around 15% of the plant's annual electricity requirement.

Prolectric Services

A417 Missing Link

On the A417 Missing Link road scheme in the Cotswolds, Prolectric worked with Kier and National Highways to replace diesel generators and tower lights with solar lighting, hybrid power and battery storage across a 40-hectare site inside a protected landscape. Technologies were trialled in live construction conditions before wider rollout. Solar lighting removed the need for trenching and mains connections, reducing ground disturbance, and DarkSky-approved fittings limited light spill affecting wildlife. In the last year the deployment of more than 80 units cut 833,689kg CO2e, avoided 270,574 litres of diesel and saved £638,180, with hybrid units reducing fuel use by over 75%.

Protium Green Solutions

Pioneer 2 Green Hydrogen Facility

Pioneer 2 is Protium's green hydrogen facility in South Wales, built around a modular, containerised 2.5MW PEM electrolyser system designed to produce up to one tonne of hydrogen a day, 25 times the output of the company's first plant. The rationale is that demand from heavy transport, logistics, industry and off-grid users exists but supply constrains it. The facility is intended to serve the M4 corridor, South Wales and South West England, and provides grid flexibility through variable operation. Construction was powered by hydrogen fuel cells and batteries rather than diesel generators, on the site of a former car park.

RAW Charging

Landsec: 1000 EV Bays Powered by Renewable Energy

RAW Charging is converting underused parking at 28 Landsec retail and leisure destinations into electric vehicle charging under a £24.5m, 20-year agreement covering 1,000 bays. Charger speeds are matched to how long visitors actually stay, and legacy units are replaced rather than supplemented. Every charger sits on a new grid connection supplied with renewable electricity, and all bays connect to the ChargePoint network, with contactless payment and broad app compatibility. More than 150 bays are live across five sites, including Cardigan Fields in Leeds and Parrs Wood in south Manchester, with the first hub live eight days after the partnership was announced.

SolarSense & Freedom Leisure

Clean Energy Scheme

Freedom Leisure's annual energy costs rose from £8m to £22m during the energy crisis, threatening services at facilities receiving more than 23 million visits a year. Working with SolarSense, local authorities and public funding bodies including Sport England and Sport Wales, the leisure trust installed 1.56MWp of solar across ten sites in England and Wales, comprising 3,451 panels, alongside 156kWh of battery storage and monitoring systems. Work was completed on time and budget without closing facilities. The £1.33m scheme is projected to generate 1.51GWh a year, cut 327 tonnes of CO2 annually and repay itself in around 3.5 years.

Tidal Pumping & Hyro

Tidal Pumping and Hydro-electric Generation

This entry sets out a design proposal to use tidal flow into and out of ocean locks to pump fresh water into storage, which would then be released through conventional hydroelectric generation. This would provide constant baseline generation day and night, addressing the intermittency that affects other renewable technologies, and could therefore displace gas, oil and nuclear generation. The proposal also envisages shoreline generation sites supporting battery recharging for electric ferries around the UK, and industrial parks sited next to generation in order to reduce transmission losses and infrastructure requirements.