Innovative green energy solution for world class golf tour using solar power batteries and biofuel

The Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic is an iconic golf event that became part of the world-renowned Rolex Series for the first time in 2022. Organised by Falcon and Associates, the tournament is popularly known as the ‘Major of the Middle East,’ because of its legacy and world-class players that it attracts every year.

For the 32nd edition of the event, Falcon had pledged to become GEO accredited in a 3-year plan, a move that involves a major drive towards sustainable products across the whole event. Falcon’s team had previously worked with Aggreko on another golf event in November 2021 and they knew Aggreko was just the right energy partner for an event of this scale.

Having just launched our solar panels and seeing its success with low fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, we had the perfect solution for their needs. To maximise the benefits of the green energy solution, we brought in not one but three different ‘sustainable’ units to provide power - Solar Gen, Powr2 battery and back-up gensets running on biofuel.

This was the first time the team in the Middle East to deploy all three units in a single event – a major undertaking in our goal towards sustainable power and energy transition.

The main challenge for this event was having to install and implement the three new sustainable power units for the first time in the region. Installing the solar panel units were particularly challenging due to its location on the golf course. Ideally solar panels would be installed on a firm, level surface but on a golf course that’s not feasible as the ground is soft and uneven. The team at Aggreko had to deal with an incline that rose approximately 1.8m from start to finish of the 92m space along with a tilt from left to right for about 20m halfway down the track.

Aggreko was commissioned to provide suitable and efficient power solutions for the entire golf site, which consists of - the Marshall’s compound, TV compound, Entertainment village, Players’ lounge, refreshments bar, European tour office, Royal Majlis, Garden Majlis, Hole 4 screens, 18th green jumbo screen, 15th green hospitality Deck and the 9th & 18th green main hospitality structure.

Aggreko was commissioned to provide suitable and efficient power solutions for the entire golf site, which consists of - the Marshall’s compound, TV compound, Entertainment village, Players’ lounge, refreshments bar, European tour office, Royal Majlis, Garden Majlis, Hole 4 screens, 18th green jumbo screen, 15th green hospitality Deck and the 9th & 18th green main hospitality structure.

Using our knowledge and technical ability along with a very good understanding of working on previous golf events we deployed the kit around the whole golf course working with the green keepers and client to cause as little disruption to the golf club whilst it was still operational and with no damage to the golf course.

The event successfully was successfully delivered on sustainable energy. The solar panels along with the battery units performed exceptionally, keeping fuel consumption low and CO2 emissions to a minimum.

With the solar gen unit installed, the backup generator on biofuel only ran for approximately 8 hours, where otherwise we would have had at least 2 diesel generators running 24/7 for the entire event. This is a huge fuel and emissions saving, going a long way towards Falcon’s 3-year plan to become GEO accredited.