When the UEFA Women's Euro 2022 matches were televised in July of 2022, culminating in the amazing win for the Lionesses. In the run up to the final, some of the amazing football action was broadcast from Leigh Sports Village Stadium in Greater Manchester.

To get Leigh fighting fit and ready for kick-off, there was some intense behind the scenes activity to get the stadium powered up with low-carbon energy. Leigh Sports Village is Wigan Council's largest single energy consumer, so big changes had to be made to reduce its energy use. In record time, E.ON Energy Solutions installed a new 200-kilowatt PV array that powers and illuminates almost 2,000 newly installed low-energy LED light fittings. At the time, not only was excitement building for the games ahead, but there was an enormous buzz around the sports village because the council really needed to optimise the power for the 12,000-capacity stadium with energy-efficient solar power, ready for the event. An additional 153-watt array at a neighbouring leisure centre completed the system.

Due to the impacts of COVID, there were global shortages of PV panel components and LED light fittings, as well as very long lead times from most contractors, along with strict deadlines for using Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) funding. There had been a national problem, with many councils and other public sector organisations having to return PSDS grants for projects that couldn’t be delivered within the required timescales.

But through the council’s energy supply framework with YPO and npower Business Solutions, E.ON Energy Solutions was able to take on the project for Wigan Council at short notice and successfully source the necessary materials to deliver the full installation within the 3-month deadline.