Bristol Bottle Yard Studios' solar panels will help power city

One of the UK's largest community-owned solar arrays will power a £12m film studio development.

The Bottle Yard Studios' filming hub in Bristol will be fuelled by more than 2,000 solar panels.

Bristol Energy Co-op, which is funding the 1MWp solar array, said any extra energy created by the panels will be directed back into the city.

Bristol City Council said it will help deliver the city's "2030 carbon-neutral ambition".

According to Community Energy England, the largest community-owned solar panel array is in Oxford as part of the Ray Valley Solar park.

Bristol Energy Cooperative project developer Will Houghton said the project will help the city tackle the climate crisis.

"Solar arrays are often designed to cover just a small part of a roof, to reduce costs," he said.

"But we're in a climate crisis, and in order to meet Bristol's climate goals we're aiming much higher than that.

"The Bottle Yard's TBY2 facility is a massive site, with loads of opportunity for energy generation and CO2 reduction.

"The amount of energy this array is capable of generating could power more than 250 average Bristol households per year."

Bristol City Council senior film manager Laura Aviles said: "We're hugely proud the exterior of the building is being put to such valuable use, hosting a community-owned PV array of this size which will generate a huge amount of clean energy to power the site, with surplus energy benefitting the city of Bristol," she said.

Cabinet member for climate, ecology, waste and energy councillor Kye Dudd said The Bottle Yard's offer to the city is "immense".

"It's not just the growth in film and TV production for the city, but it's the commitment to help deliver Bristol's 2030 carbon-neutral ambition and the community and partnership working that underpins it," he said.

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