King’s Cross railway station in London has a lot to be happy about today, celebrating the birth of the iconic and forward-thinking £1.3 million solar project, which boasts a whopping 240kWp rooftop PV system.
The project is part of a much larger £550 million redevelopment programme at Kings Cross railway, where £42 million was assigned to renovate the roof.
To form the roof, 1,392 custom-made glass laminate solar panels were designed and supplied to make this the largest solar project in the UK.
Img credit : Gwydion M. Williams
This legendary grade 1 listed building now has an area of more than 2,300 square metres covered with the state of the art solar panels, stretching across the main platforms of the station. This epic project will provide an estimated 10% of the station’s electricity consumption with a 175,000 KWh of solar energy output per annum.
Two leading UK solar technology providers teamed up to supply, design and install the project.
As well as the solar companies, roof glazing specialists ESB Services were contracted to install the PV glass laminates.
What’s remarkable about this project is the fact that the station was still open throughout the execution of the installation. With over 40 million people using the station throughout the year, this was a challenge of epic proportions for the project developers.
The installation is being sighted as the most challenging project of the era, and will be remembered as a defining achievement in history.
Many projects will likely form on the back of this project to follow suit and work towards a more sustainable future.
There were multiple issues facing the developers, from shading issues to designing a project which would conceal the 10km of cables used to connect the modules to the inverters.
What sets this project aside from various large scale projects in operation is that there was no margin for error because the station was open as usual throughout installation. The project pushes the limits of modern design, technical excellence and sustainability, all within the beauty of one of the UK’s finest grade 1 listed buildings. Working above an open station in a collaborative manner like this project is an almighty feat, with sustainability at the heart of the project.
Author Bio
Tom Clark writes on various topics surrounding sustainability and solar power in the UK. Oskomera Solar are leading UK solar panel suppliers who provide solar pv equipment including solar panel kits: http://www.oskomerasolar.co.uk/shop/solar-panel-kits-sunkit.
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