14 DAY TRIAL // The United Kingdom has recently added its largest solar installation at an airport yet, media report say. Thus, the London Southend Airport is said to now sport nearly 500 solar panels on its roof.
Information shared with the public says that the 496 solar panels were installed at the London Southend Airport as part of a series of investments in a ₤10 million (approximately €12.05 million / $16.6 million) terminal expansion.
The facility's brand new eco-friendly installation will serve to harvest solar power and provide clean energy for shops, cafés, and restaurants that the London Southend Airport presently accommodates for.
According to Business Green, the installation is to help the facility improve on its ecological footprint by switching to relying heavily on renewables instead of dirty power sources.
More precisely, specialists who have helped implement this green-oriented project estimate that, thanks to this solar installation, the airport's overall carbon dioxide emissions over the following twenty years will drop by around 1,000 tonnes.
The same source tells us that the London Southend Airport has some very big plans for the future. Specifically, it hopes to achieve a BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) Very Good environmental assessment rating.
To this end, the facility has done more than turn to solar to meet the power demand of its restaurants, shops, and cafés. Specifically, sustainable drainage, improved insulation, enhancing natural lighting and installing energy-saving escalators are all environmental measures implemented at the London Southend Airport.
What's interesting is that, despite the fact that airports are especially well suited to accommodate for solar installations due to the fact that they sport fairly large roofs, the United Kingdom's largest photovoltaic installation presently sits atop a warehouse.
As reported just yesterday, the building that currently accommodates for the biggest solar photovoltaic installation in the United Kingdom is Wolseley UK's National Distribution Center. The installation in question is made up of about 8,000 solar panels, and it spans over an area of about 13,113 square meters (about 141,147 square feet).
This massive solar system was set in place by leading energy saving expert Mark Group Limited, and specialists say that it will not only roll out enough clean energy to meet the annual needs of Wolseley UK's National Distribution Center, but that it will also produce a 10% surplus.
“Wolseley’s investment in this installation should be completely repaid in around 7 years, which means the NDC will receive free energy thereafter. Wolseley UK will also achieve carbon savings of around 1280 tonnes per year, helping to improve the Leamington Spa site’s environmental performance, which is already rated by BREEAM as ‘very good,’” Chris Roberts with Mark Group said in a statement.