Dutch soccer match entirely run on wind and solar power in a historic first

An 8.6 MWh battery pack installed at the Johan Crujiff Arena, the home stadium for the Ajax football club in the Netherlands, was instrumental in powering an entire soccer match with sustainable energy last week.

Stadium lights during the soccer match, the lighting in the players’ tunnel, the elevators, and even the beer taps were powered using sustainable energy during a recent match. This is only the beginning since the Arena, which also hosts other events, has more ambitious plans for its energy usage.

As the world looks to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, sustainable energy sources are in demand for powering not only homes and offices but also other public places that are important for communities.

Interesting Engineering previously reported how solar panels and battery infrastructure could turn public places like schools and libraries into resilience hubs in California. Even sporting facilities are ensuring that their energy consumption is cleaner and greener.

The national soccer stadium in Norway recently made headlines for installing the world’s largest rooftop vertical photovoltaic system . The Johan Crujiff Arena may not boast of the largest clean energy installation. Still, it surely does not leave any stone unturned to ensure that its operations are environment-friendly.

Powered by sustainable energy

The Johan Crujiff Arena, located in the capital city of Amsterdam, already has 4,200 solar panels installed on its roof. In 2018, the Arena authorities installed a 3 MW battery system to store renewable energy. This battery storage system’s unique feature was using secondhand batteries instead of deploying new ones.

Back then, the system was the largest project in Europe to give a second life to used electric vehicles and secondhand batteries and the first to be used for a commercial application. Since then, the soccer stadium has made further advances in powering its operations with cleaner energy.

The Arena already purchases green energy from wind turbines installed in the nearby village of Oudendijk and another locally built solar park.

The Arena uses an LED-based grass growth system and has also deployed LED lighting for its stadium to reduce energy demand. Recently, the soccer stadium installed its second battery system, which increases its combined storage capacity to 8.6 MWh, sufficient to power 20,000 homes for one hour, according to a press release .

Soccer stadium to host other energy positive events

With such a high energy capacity now installed, the Arena authorities planned to use green energy alone to conduct the home team’s first match of the national league, Eredivisie.

In addition to successfully carrying out all matchday operations using green energy, the upgraded battery system also serves as a grid stabilizer and a facility to store excess renewable energy generated in the region.

The Arena already uses smart energy control systems to optimize the green energy from the solar panels on its rooftops. But its aims are not limited to soccer-related events alone. As the largest stadium in the Netherlands and host to many concerts and events, the Arena wants to make a statement about climate change and lead the way in acting against it.

“We are incredibly proud that, together with our partners, we can take this big step in making football matches more sustainable. Our ambition is to realize Net Positive events by 2030,” said Tanja Dik, CEO of Johan Cruijff Arena.