LEGO Group Breaks Ground on 116 MW Billund Solar Park

The LEGO Group has begun construction of its largest solar park to date in Billund, Denmark, a 116 megawatt installed capacity facility expected to generate approximately 99 gigawatt-hours of renewable electricity annually, enough to match 100 percent of the company's total electricity consumption in Billund when operations begin in late 2027. The project will increase the company's installed renewable energy capacity by 204 percent compared to 2025, when owned renewable energy accounted for 5.8 percent of total energy consumption at production sites, and forms part of the LEGO Group's target to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across its value chain by 2050. Annette Stube, Chief Sustainability Officer at the LEGO Group, said the Billund solar park is an important milestone toward the ambition to expand renewable energy capacity globally and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and that the site has been thoughtfully designed to support local biodiversity and provide a welcoming space for the community.

 

Solar Park Design and Renewable Energy Strategy

 

The Billund Solar Park will have an installed capacity of 116 megawatts and a grid connection of 80 megawatt peak, with the site covering approximately 100 hectares in total and designed to balance electricity generation with significant natural habitat provision. The 99 gigawatt-hour annual generation figure represents a meaningful contribution to the LEGO Group's energy supply, covering the full Billund electricity requirement from a single on-site renewable facility located adjacent to the company's global headquarters. The investment builds on the LEGO Group's broader renewable energy strategy combining on-site generation, power purchase agreements and renewable energy certificates to progressively increase the share of clean electricity across its global manufacturing and operational footprint.

The LEGO Group's renewable energy journey has accelerated significantly in recent years, with owned renewable energy rising from 3.6 percent of total energy consumption at production sites in 2024 to 5.8 percent in 2025, a trajectory that the Billund Solar Park will substantially extend when it reaches full operation in late 2027. The 204 percent increase in installed renewable capacity relative to the 2025 baseline illustrates the step-change scale of the Billund investment relative to the company's existing renewable energy portfolio, making this single project more transformative for the company's energy profile than all previous renewable investments combined. The net-zero 2050 target across the full value chain provides the long-term accountability framework within which the Billund Solar Park represents an important near-term operational milestone.

 

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Biodiversity Integration and Nature-Positive Design

 

The solar park's 100-hectare site has been divided to allocate 65 hectares to solar panel installation surrounded by plants to minimise visual impact, with the remaining 35 hectares dedicated entirely to natural habitats, wetlands and open landscapes including water holes designed to support local wildlife. Bat habitats and nesting boxes have been installed across the site alongside planting of grasses, flowers, shrubs and trees, creating ecological infrastructure that actively supports biodiversity within and around the solar installation rather than treating the surrounding land as incidental buffer space. This nature-positive design approach reflects growing recognition across the renewable energy industry that solar parks can simultaneously generate clean electricity and provide meaningful ecological benefit when designed with habitat creation as a deliberate objective rather than an afterthought.

The integration of renewable energy generation with active biodiversity support on a single site addresses one of the principal criticisms levelled at large-scale solar installations, namely that they can reduce ecological value of previously productive or biodiverse land. By dedicating 35 percent of the total site area to natural habitats and designing the solar panel areas with vegetation to support pollinators and other wildlife, the LEGO Group is demonstrating a model for dual-purpose land use that generates clean energy while delivering measurable nature benefit. The Billund Solar Park's biodiversity design aligns with the growing corporate commitment to nature-positive outcomes alongside climate goals following the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework's adoption of targets for halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030.

 

Community Access and Educational Dimensions

 

The surrounding nature areas of the Billund Solar Park will be open to the public, creating new recreational and educational spaces where a network of paths and boardwalks will allow visitors to explore the site and learn more about local biodiversity in an environment that combines clean energy infrastructure with accessible natural landscape. An existing transformer tower on the site will be restored and repurposed as a small museum space, converting industrial infrastructure into a community asset that provides a focal point for educational engagement with the solar park's dual renewable energy and nature conservation mission. This community access dimension extends the public benefit of the solar park beyond its electricity generation contribution into active recreational and educational provision for the local Billund population.

The decision to make the nature areas publicly accessible rather than securing the entire site for operational purposes reflects a deliberate philosophy of integrating major corporate infrastructure investments into the fabric of local communities rather than creating enclosed industrial zones. For a company headquartered in Billund for nearly a century and deeply embedded in the local community's identity and economy, designing the solar park as a shared community resource alongside a corporate clean energy asset demonstrates the reciprocal relationship between the LEGO Group and its home town. The boardwalk and path network will allow Billund residents and visitors to engage directly with both the solar energy generation and the natural habitats that surround it, creating a lived experience of the connection between renewable energy and ecological restoration.

 

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Outlook for LEGO Group Renewable Energy and Net-Zero Progress

 

The Billund Solar Park construction start represents the most significant single renewable energy investment in the LEGO Group's history and establishes a new baseline for the company's on-site generation ambitions as it pursues its 2050 net-zero value chain target. Whether the project can be completed on schedule for late 2027 operations and deliver the projected 99 gigawatt-hour annual generation consistently will determine the pace at which the Billund site achieves its 100 percent renewable electricity matching goal and the contribution this makes to the company's overall emissions reduction trajectory. Sustained delivery of the biodiversity and community benefit dimensions alongside the clean energy generation objective would establish the Billund Solar Park as a reference case for how major consumer brands can design renewable energy infrastructure that creates multiple layers of public value beyond electricity production.

The convergence of the LEGO Group's net-zero commitment, its deep community roots in Billund and growing regulatory and consumer expectations for corporate nature-positive investment alongside climate action creates conditions in which the solar park investment is well aligned with the company's long-term commercial and sustainability positioning. The next phase of the LEGO Group's renewable energy expansion will involve replicating and scaling successful on-site generation models like Billund across its global manufacturing footprint while continuing to use power purchase agreements and renewable energy certificates to address sites where direct investment is not commercially or technically feasible.

 

Source: The LEGO Group