Britain’s famous King’s Cross railways station is undergoing a massive revamping effort including the installation of solar panels to supplement its energy requirements. The project costs a tidy 1.3 million pounds and is being designed on an ambitious scale. The new roof of the station has already drawn compliments from various quarters but it is the PV installation that will make all the difference. The solar system will produce 240kW and work is nearing completion to the excitement of many.
The PVs will be installed along the two new barrel-vaulted roofs which are made of glass. The solar cells will be integrated into glass laminates numbering 1,392 units forming a portion of the 2,300 sq meter glass roof. The challenge was to synchronize the PV installation with a rolling scaffold as well as work around strict regulations to ensure that nothing untoward occurred while constructing over the live line. To get an idea of how difficult it was to get everything together, small items like pens had to be transported via an elevator so that they wouldn’t fall on the line or the commuters.
But the British are known to be able to work under stressful conditions so the obstacles don’t seem to be doing much to slow down work. The revamped station is expected to be completed by summer. Once done, the PVs will get to work to produce 175,000 kWh of power a year. That’s enough to bring down emissions by over 100 tons every year.
The roof isn’t the only thing that’s been given a facelift. The ticket hall, the original façade of the station and the roof of the main shed have also been restored.
And, if you thought that the project was impressive, Blackfriars railway station is even more so. It boasts a huge 4,400 solar panel array that stretches over the roof of a bridge running over the river Thames.
Via: Guardian
