Live events like concerts and sports games bring people of all walks of life together in ways you rarely find anywhere else. Beyond creating shared unity around a favorite artist or the home team, live entertainment can also serve as a “cultural megaphone” for sustainability, says Dale Vince, founder of the U.K. renewable energy company Ecotricity.
“When people go to a concert or a football match, they’re open to new experiences,” he says. “That’s a chance to show them what you’re doing — solar panels, car chargers, vegan food — and let them think about it.”
He speaks from experience: Ecotricity owns the Forest Green Rovers, known as the world’s first vegan football club. “We added solar panels, built an organic pitch, switched to plant-based food — and we’ve seen our fans change their own habits as a result,” he says. “You don’t have to preach. You just show people what’s possible.”
AEG Europe is bringing the same idea to an even bigger stage, announcing a landmark deal with Ecotricity to power all of its entertainment venues in the United Kingdom with renewable energy. That includes iconic arenas like The O2 in London, the Watford Colosseum in Hertfordshire, and The Halls Wolverhampton in West Midlands. Together these venues host some of the best known performers in the world and welcome tens of thousands of fans a day. The O2 complex alone had more than 10 million visitors last year, creating ample opportunity to show fans what’s possible for renewables.
These venues will become the first in the entertainment industry to run on the U.K.’s most sustainable forms of energy, primarily sourced from solar and hydropower projects. The agreement combines Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with hourly-matched Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGOs), tying each venue’s hourly energy use directly to specific solar and hydro assets. This level of granularity and transparency sets a high bar for the future of renewables in live entertainment.
“PPAs are widely recognized as the gold standard in energy procurement, and we’re proud to play a role in launching this first-of-its-kind agreement,” says Sam Booth, AEG Europe’s director of sustainability. “It marks a significant milestone in the ongoing journey to decarbonize the live entertainment industry, and we’re pleased to help drive this progress.”
While it’s a major step for the industry, fans probably won’t even notice the difference at first. They’ll turn up for their favorite shows, same as always, and have a great time. And that’s the beauty of it. When popular entertainment venues run on renewables, it normalizes clean energy for everyone and shows fans that clean power doesn’t have to be a tradeoff or a sacrifice, Vince says. “If a big, iconic arena can do it, people think, ‘Why can’t I?’”
The new partnership builds on the success of AEG Presents’ LIDO Festival held in London’s Victoria Park this summer, one of the most environmentally sustainable music festivals the U.K. has ever seen.
For that show, the company linked up with Grid Faeries x Ecotricity and the nonprofit A Greener Future to power the live stages at LIDO with batteries rather than the typical diesel generators.
English trip-hop pioneer Massive Attack’s headlining performance at LIDO was the first large live music event to be powered entirely by batteries. Some even say it sounded better, too.
“The sound system company told us the bass drops were actually cleaner and more responsive with battery power,” Claire O’Neill, co-founder of A Greener Future, which consults with events, festivals and venues to reduce their environmental impact, as well as co-founder of Grid Faeries, told TriplePundit after the festival. “It was comparable to permanent venue power — no droning generators, no diesel fumes. Just music.”
The partners went on to swap diesel for batteries at other London festivals including All Points East, which drew around 50,000 fans to Victoria Park in August.
The latest agreement brings renewably-powered live music indoors at U.K. venues, creating a new opportunity to engage fans and accelerating the growth of renewable energy on the country’s power grid. That’s a key focus for Vince and Ecotricity, which has been helping customers make the switch to renewables since it built its first wind turbine at a Sainsbury’s distribution depot in Scotland in 2000.
“Technically, there’s nothing stopping communities or small businesses from doing the same,” he says. “The challenge is organizing people — getting everyone to agree.”
To make that process a bit easier, Ecotricity uses a collective purchasing scheme called energy baskets to group multiple small users together to buy into clean power projects. Collective purchasing opens up access to organizations of all sizes and demonstrates that smaller players — from local councils to small- and medium-sized enterprises — can get in on the action, Vince explains.
“It shows that even smaller energy users can play a role,” he says. “We’ve supplied homes, venues, and even football clubs. It’s about harnessing every customer’s need for energy and putting it to good use.”
In the case of live entertainment, switching to renewables is one of many ways to subtly remind fans that their daily choices have an impact and making a change doesn’t have to be so hard.
“You don’t have to change everything overnight,” Vince says. “Just start: eat less meat, walk more, fly less. We can all do this. Positivity is powerful.”
Shifts in other areas, like the type of food and beverage on offer and the bins and systems used to manage waste, have also been well received by fans at AEG Europe events. The all-vegetarian food site that headliner Massive Attack requested at LIDO, for example, drew long lines and happy faces among fans.
In the case of energy at venues, it’s a change that’s designed to go unnoticed at first, but one that sends a powerful signal for the fans who stop to think about it. “People have to believe their actions matter,” Vince says. “That’s why verification and transparency are important — knowing where your energy comes from, where the money goes, what it achieves.”
Renewable energy is already powering these U.K. venues ahead of a busy holiday season and major events like the NBA’s London game at The O2 in January.
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