Bombardier has installed more than 3,000 solar panels on the roof of its London Biggin Hill service centre, underscoring its commitment to promote sustainable practices within the aviation industry and to reduce its energy consumption at its worldwide facilities.

The recently completed project was developed in collaboration with Zestec Renewable Energy, a funder, developer and asset manager of renewable solutions and part of the Octopus Energy group. The new PV solar panels will generate more than 1.133 million kWh, lowering the annual carbon emissions by up to 252 tons and providing up to 32 per cent of the facility's total energy demand from an on-site renewable source.

“At Bombardier, we are actively committed to ensuring that we are making aviation more sustainable and this includes the design and implementation of sustainability-related projects in our service facilities around the world,” says Paul Sislian, executive vice president, aftermarket service and strategy. “This recent installation is aligned with our company's objective to manufacture and service aircraft with the smallest possible environmental impact and demonstrates our company's commitment to lead the way to a greener industry.”

Bombardier's expanded London Biggin Hill service centre nears 250,000 sq ft and provides customers with complete heavy maintenance capabilities. It is fully equipped to perform scheduled and unscheduled maintenance, modifications and avionics installations for Bombardier Learjet, Challenger and Global aircraft.

The addition of the solar panels at the London Biggin Hill service centre is an example of Bombardier's ongoing commitment to building and enhancing its service facilities. Another example is Bombardier's Singapore service centre. Located at the growing Seletar Aerospace Park in Singapore, the 290,000 sq ft facility was built with sustainability at its core. The LEED Silver certified service centre includes new solar panel installations, electric vehicle charging and SAF capability.

Bombardier's sustainability commitment extends far beyond its worldwide service centre development. The company is actively seeking new environmentally conscious solutions and is committed to ensuring a 25 per cent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 relative to 2019 levels. Since 2023, Bombardier has also been covering the totality of its flight operations with a sustainable aviation fuel blend using a Book-and-Claim system and has become the only business jet OEM to publicly disclose the environmental impact of its entire product portfolio through the publication of Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for all its in-production aircraft.

Finally, the company's revolutionary EcoJet research project initiated over 15 years ago and currently exploring the blended-wing-body aircraft configuration targets to reduce business jets CO2 emissions by up to 50 per cent compared to the current aircraft generation through significant aerodynamics, propulsions and other enhancements.