On match days, Bath City FC's stadium buzzes with fans cheering goals. The rest of the week, the lights stay off and the energy bills pile up. That gap — intense bursts of activity followed by days of quiet — turned out to be exactly the kind of problem University of Bath researchers love to solve.
In 2022, Oliver Bostock, a PhD researcher at the university's Center for Doctoral Training in Advanced Automotive Propulsion Systems, started working with the club to map out how a small community football team could shrink its carbon footprint. Bath City FC, founded in 1889, plays at Twerton Park and competes in the Southern League Premier Division South — far from the glittering stadiums of Premier League giants, but no less important to its neighborhood.
The researchers found that community clubs like Bath City have a distinct energy pattern. They guzzle power on matchdays but use almost nothing the rest of the week. That imbalance, Bostock explained, creates a real opportunity: install green energy technology, and clubs could actually send electricity back to the local community and the national grid during their quiet days. "Football clubs have a very distinct energy profile," he said. "By installing green energy technologies, clubs could cut emissions and supply energy or flexibility back to the local community and the grid during downtime."
The team started with small, practical steps. They helped Bath City replace old, energy-wasting floodlights with efficient LED bulbs. That single change saved around 1.25 metric tons of carbon dioxide every year — roughly 4% of the club's total energy emissions — and also saved the club about £1,250 annually in electricity costs.
Buoyed by those early results, a new group of third-year engineering students took the work further. They designed a 15-year roadmap showing how the club could slash its emissions by 75% and save more than £500,000 over that period. The plan spreads the work across phases: first battery storage systems, then solar panels on the stadium roof, then an air-source heat pump to warm the building without burning fossil fuels, and electric vehicle chargers for fans who drive to matches.
"One of the biggest challenges is the upfront investment required," said Nico Ostler Baraona, another PhD researcher on the project. "For smaller clubs, committing to new infrastructure is a significant decision. But the key message from this work is that the solutions are feasible and realistic."
Professor Furong Li, who supervised the student teams, said she was proud of how the students turned a small feasibility study into real-world action. The club's current and former chairpersons, David McDonagh and Nick Blofeld, played a key role by opening their doors and giving students a genuine problem to solve.
The project is now becoming a permanent part of the university through a Vertically Integrated Project, connecting students with local organizations for years to come. It demonstrates that while global football often makes headlines for its massive carbon footprint, grassroots clubs could quietly become small but meaningful players in building a cleaner future — one neighborhood at a time.