A SOLAR farm the size of eight football pitches being used to power the manufacturing of fighter jets in Lancashire will save the arms giant a fortune every year.

BAE Systems’ 9,000 solar panels are now live, powering the facility in Samlesbury and cutting £370,000 from the site’s electricity bill every year.

The panels will provide nearly a fifth of the electricity needed to build components for the Eurofighter Typhoon and F-35 Lightning II aircraft as well as wings for the Hawk training jet.

They will save up to £220,000 from the site’s bill as well as generating nearly £150,000 in a feed-in tariff.

Dave Holmes, manufacturing operations director at BAE Systems’ Military Air and Information business, said: “We anticipate the panels will stop 1,500 tonnes of carbon being added to the atmosphere every year.

“We are utilising part of the site’s former runway which is welcome news for the environment.

“We design our buildings, infrastructure and equipment with energy efficiency and renewable technology at the heart of it and a large amount of investment has gone into developing Samlesbury with the environment in mind.”

The switch on will generate 10,000 kilowatt hours every day and, when running at full capacity, it will generate two megawatts of power.

The savings generated by the solar panels will enable BAE Systems to sell its military jets and defence services to its customers across the globe at a lower price.

The Samlesbury site already operates an ‘energy loop’, which captures waste energy from its manufacturing machines to heat offices .