BIG PROJECTS: The CIS Tower in Manchester.

The CIS tower in Manchester has three of its four sides completely clad in photovoltaic cells. This allows the building to harvest the sun's power throughout the day from dawn to dusk. The front wall is facing south, which is the main recipient of sunlight. The east and west walls would receive far less light. As this structure is in the Northern Hemisphere, there is clearly no point cladding the north wall with solar panels.


This building is a perfect example of the kind of mega-scale use of solar panels that is needed. Even though the east and west walls are clearly not as productive as the south wall they were paneled anyway. Cooperative Insurance Society (CIS) has invested over 4 MILLION POUNDS of non government funds into this project. That's the equivalent of $USD 8.04 million or $AU 9.36 million, and it is the largest renewable energy project in the UK. If governments and private companies the world over followed CIS's example we would be living in a totally green energy rich world.


The tower's 7,244 solar panels produce sufficient energy per annum on average to power a three bedroom house for 60 years. While the panels produce only 21kW of electricity (= 0.021 MW), CIS has used this office building to make a public commitment to build a sustainable future. Even though the solar panels only meet 10% of the building's power needs, and will probably never pay for themselves, CIS has done as much as they possibly could to make this undoubtedly one of the greenest office buildings in the United Kingdom.

This project also serves as a counter argument to the often aired idea that Solar Power is not a viable mainstream energy supply because of the amount of space required. This building is meeting 10% of its energy needs with no additional space requirements for the panels. This same approach can be taken to rooftops, correctly facing walls, carpark covers, bus shelters, the list is endless. All we need to do is stand on top of a hill in any urban area and we can see thousands of acres of free roof and wall space which can be treated in the same manner as the CIS Tower.