Environment
ENERGY
Find Out About Our Renewable Energy Initiatives
More and more festivals are powering their operations with renewable energy.
Here at Boom, we have been leading the eco-festival movement for years. A large-scale festival understandably needs large-scale power, so we have made it our lifelong goal to power up in a way that is mindful of the planet.
Electric energy is clearly a key component of our festival, but we've put our heads together to devise a growing number of small, yet impactful solutions to address this challenge, including using recycled vegetable oil instead of diesel. Over the years, we have made a number of changes.
The 2025 edition of Boom saw the first-ever pilot project of three Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) on site, which are essentially giant rechargeable batteries that regulate the generators allowing for a more efficient use and a considerable reduction in fuel consumption.
Learn more about her battery innovations in our eco-letter here, and get the lowdown on our Off the Grid project and solar storage initiatives below.
ENERGY PROJECTS FLASHBACK
We completed a community-based project to collect waste veggie oil:
• In 2008, Boom collected and re-used 45,000 litres of waste vegetable oil for the generators. This avoided the emission of 117,000 kg of CO₂ into the atmosphere.
• The vehicles used (one truck, two vans) run on waste vegetable oil.
• Boom had two generators: one 100 kVA and one 80 kVA generators that run on waste vegetable oil.
2010 marked a new location of Boom Festival and the start of an experimental project.
• Boom built 3 small mobile photovoltaic stations with six 80 watts panels. They were used to power the offices of areas such as Main Production, Sacred Fire, Healing Area and Ambient Paradise, and generated 2.4 kWh per day.
• The fourth solar station produced at the Boom Lab had an output of 3.2 kWh of solar energy per day.
• Boom Lab also developed a bigger station that was placed near the Main Production and workshops. Following the tilt of the sun, 18 panels produced 8.6 kWh of solar energy per day.
Boom off the grid was a new project in 2012 within the realm of energy efficiency. It was developed by our in-house team under the Boom Lab experimental initiative.
It involved four different sub-projects:
- Solar and waste vegetable powered generators run the Healing and Sacred Fire areas.
- A clean energy irrigation system covering 50 hectares of land, energised by solar power.
- The entire Production Village powered by the sun.
- The generator of the Liminal Village powered by a combination of wind solar energy and conventional fuel.
Some of the results of the 2012 edition were:
- 25% of the festival area was operating independently of the mainstream electrical matrix as we took Boom’s Environmental Programme to the next level.
- 45.000 litres of vegetable oil used as biofuel, reducing CO₂ emissions by 117 tons.
- 80,000 litres of lake water used for irrigation pumped daily using Boom’s solar pumps.
Energy infographic published in the Boom 2014 website
Energy, outside of festival days, was supplied by solar panels with a mixed system using generators when batteries are down (until 2016) and merging with the grid (from 2018 onwards).
When there was sun and batteries were good, off-grid energy supply could get up 90% of daily needs. Portugal has around 50-60% of clean energy supply from the grid.
In 2016 90% of camping was powered by solar lighting.
From 2018 on we installed at Boomland:
- New solar water pump system for irrigation (Central Plaza area).
- Reinforcement of the panels and batteries from production area that runs all year round.
Boom 2025 saw the arrival of three Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) on site – marking the first battery-powered generators to be installed at Boomland.
Two battery-powered generators were set up at Sacred Fire and one in the camping area – based on grid access, stable energy loads, available space and reduced sound impact.
This hybrid system, helps reduce both fuel consumption and noise pollution.
