Roll out the green carpet – Bristol’s Hollywood in Hengrove The Bottle Yard 2 has won an award at Cannes for our 1MWp community-owned solar rooftop array!
At a glittering ceremony, TBY2 received Best Sustainability Initiative as part of the Global Production Awards at the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in France.
TBY2 is by far our biggest rooftop solar array so far. It consists of more than 2,300 PV panels and is believed to be the largest community-owned rooftop array in the UK – and the biggest rooftop PV system in the UK studios sector! The scheme will generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of 250 homes a year – that’s a lot of good energy.
The story started when the landowner Bristol City Council was refurbishing the building, but funding to install a 283kW solar array became uncertain. So in 2021, the council asked us to help. We went a step further by covering all of the roof space on the building and increasing the array to 1MW. In doing so we tripled the planned generation and carbon savings.
Not only is this great for the studio, but in the future surplus energy can be shared through the Bristol City Leap Sleeved Pool electricity supply model, which virtually connects buildings and ‘sleeves’ energy generated from one to another, reducing energy consumption from non-renewables.
The Global Production Awards were launched this year to celebrate outstanding and sustainable work in the field of film and TV production, locations and studios. They are open to all organisations and companies working in the international film and TV industry including studios, production companies, film commissions, location, suppliers and manufacturers and any services involved in film and TV production.
TBY2’s green credentials have been getting a lot of attention recently. In May, they received the second-highest score out of 12 studios in the first cohort of BAFTA albert’s new Studio Sustainability Standard.
This kind of recognition shows the power of community energy as the ultimate audience pleaser, not only for the city of Bristol but for everyone enjoying the productions being filmed at TBY2.
