The facade of this Manchester skyscraper (owned by CIS, an insurance company) was original covered with small mosaic tiles, but after only six months, they began to detach and fall. A solution was needed, and a company called solarcentury came up with a clever idea replacing the failing tiles with solar cells.
Not only do the solar cells provide a weatherproof barrier, they also generate about 390kW of power for the building. In total, 7,244 Sharp 80W modules are used to cover the entire service tower (but apparently only 4898 of these modules are “live” the others are “dummy modules” — strange). The building also has 24 wind turbines on the roof, which provide 10% of the total power used by the building.
The £5.5 million ($10.1 million) solar project was supported by a £885,000 (US$1.64 million) grant from the Northwest Regional Development Agency and a £175,000 (US$ 324,435) grant from the Department of Trade and Industry.
Link: CIS Solar Tower
4 responses so far ↓
1 Jared // Apr 19, 2007 at 12:45 pm
If I had to guess I would say that the lower few thousand modules are dummy as they would be least likely to get sunlight and considering the cost of solar panels would not be worth it.
2 Brian Cantin // Apr 19, 2007 at 6:09 pm
The portions of the building that for most of the day (or all of the day) would be in shade due to the facing direction or shadows from nearby buildings likely aren’t active - these cells would be only cause a higher level of resistance in the circuit and make the whole system less efficient.
A very cool idea. If all the tall skyscrapers put solar cells and wind turbines on top, our cities would be much better off.
3 Bed and Breakfast Naples // Jun 28, 2007 at 7:34 pm
Very interesting idea, but apart from the 10% coverage from the wind turbines, how much cover the solar cells?
4 Cris // Dec 3, 2007 at 6:32 pm
How much power do the solar cells prouduce? 90% of the total power?
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