Hello! A warm welcome back to my blog. In the last post, I discussed how clubs can reduce their electricity consumption by switching to LED floodlights. But throughout the week, I have been thinking through the various ways football stadiums consume electricity. This includes the lamps to stimulate plant growth, to the advertising board around the stadium, and even undersoil heating systems to prevent the playing field from freezing during the winter months.
By adding them all together, the club’s electricity consumption, especially on match days, will be a significant amount. In fact, a World Cup match during the 2018 edition consumed up to 25,000 kWh of electricity. Which means a single game can power a typical 4-room HDB flat for nearly 70 months!
Having done the above calculations, I couldn’t help but think about the volume of greenhouse gases football clubs generate through the course of the season. This led me to wonder: is it feasible for clubs to rely on renewable energies to run their day-to-day operations? In the case of Brighton and Hove Albion FC, yes! The club has taken to installing solar panels on the roof of their training ground, thus ensuring that their energy supply is clean.
While cheaper today as compared to the past, solar panels are still relatively expensive which puts off a lot of football clubs that are looking into this technology. One argument would be that the long term savings from using renewables would eventually offset the initial investment made in installing solar panels. Another would be that the cost can be offset by selling this ‘green’ energy to others.
How you may ask? Take a look at Arsenal FC, which went a step further by installing a 3MWh battery storage system at the Emirates Stadium. Not only does the battery power their home games, but it is also able to store surplus energy on non-match days and sell them back to the National Grid. Not only does this cut their own carbon emissions, over 10.7 million kilograms of carbon emissions to be precise, it also means that they are also able to generate revenue from their ‘green’ investment.
Perhaps that’s the way to entice football clubs to switch to renewables, by marketing such technology as investments rather than highlighting their cost-saving potential. With football very much a business model as it is a sport, the prospect of profiting from ‘green’ energy would surely entice club owners to utilise such technology.
Do you think this is a win-win situation for both the clubs and the environment? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Hi Yu Xun,
I think there are some Qs to ask ourselves.
1) Do you really need batteries to be able to sell excess power back to the grid ? I don’t think so, and I think batteries make the PV system way more extensive, thereby extending the “payback” period. Not to mention batteries have their own environmental impacts. I could be wrong about that.
2) Given rock-bottom prices of oil right now and the impacts of the pandemic (no more bums in seats), do you think it’ll be tougher to get soccer clubs to buy into models of increased reliance on renewables (or sustainability initiatives in general) ?
Thanks !
jc
Hi Dr Coleman,
Perhaps I may have been confused with the role of batteries in PV systems. I had the impression that by storing energy in batteries, the management can choose when to sell energy back to the power grid, like during peak periods when electricity prices are higher. Without batteries, the club is forced to sell energy only when the solar panels are producing more electricity than needed, and the electricity prices during these periods may not be the highest. Hence, I thought that the installation of batteries can maximise the profit gained from selling energy back. Whether it can offset the additional cost incurred is not something that I’ve researched deeply about.
Regarding the environmental impacts of batteries, I was unable to find anything specific about EV systems. However, I came across an article on electric car batteries and found that such batteries are made of lithium. The mining of lithium has been associated with water scarcity and toxic spills in Latin America, which does indeed support your point that the production of batteries may be damaging to the environment.
Regarding the current situation now, I feel that the switch to renewables might be delayed due to the high initial cost associated with renewable technology. As you’ve rightfully pointed out, Premier League clubs are feeling the pinch now having lost £500m in collective revenue for the 2019-20 season. And with the UK government shelving plans to allow fans back into stadiums from October 1, it may mean the game may be further losing £100m per month. So rather than looking at the potential long-term savings, clubs will be looking to save as much as possible in the current climate. Hence, clubs will probably employ whatever methods to survive in the short-term, and that may also include the continued use of fossil-fuel electricity.
Oh. Wait. Yes, I knew that if you don’t have batteries with your PV, you can only sell the power back when the panels are generating electricity. But it never occurred to me that this was a decision based on fluctuating costs of electricity. In fact, I admit, I didn’t even know electricity costs fluctuates within a day and I obviously don’t understand how electricity pricing works here. Or even throughout Canada, as it turns out.
See, your reply made me look it up and I discovered that the daily rate fluctuates in Ontario.
http://www.ieso.ca/-/media/Files/IESO/Market-Summaries/2018/07/Monthly/2018Jul.pdf
Meanwhile, in Québec (where I’m from), I don’t think it does. And I wonder how much of this variation is due to the source. In Québec, nearly all electricity comes from hydro, provided by a govt corporation. In Ontario, most is from nuclear power, but there are other sources too, including some hydro and carbon-based fuels.
Clearly, I need a bit of an education on how energy markets work, so thanks for your reply.
No worries! Thanks for providing the daily rates for electricity in Ontario for my reference too.