Facebook Twitter Linkedin

  • Home
  • News Center
    • Latest News
    • Events
  • Publications
  • Education
    • Education Home
    • Calculation Examples
    • Online Historical Database of Civil Infrastructure
  • Networking
  • Jobs
  • Software
  • Maps
  • Advertising Services
  • Home
  • News Center
  • Latest News
  • News on Projects / Industry
  • The giant floating solar farm on the outskirts of London has completed one year of operation

The giant floating solar farm on the outskirts of London has completed one year of operation

Written by  TheCivilEngineer.org
Published in News on Projects / Industry
  • Media
The giant floating solar farm on the outskirts of London has completed one year of operation
19
June

The structure is Europe’s largest, covering an area equivalent to eight football pitches

Europe’s largest floating solar farm has been operating since March 2016. Being installed on Thames Water’s Queen Elizabeth II reservoir near Walton-On-Thames, it is invisible to all but Heathrow passengers and a few flats in neighboring estates. However, its 23,000 solar panels produce enough electricity to power the utility’s local water treatment plants, which provide clean drinking water to around 10 million people in greater London and the south-east of England. The panels are mounted on a pontoon consisting of 61,000 floats and 177 anchors, and cover an area of 57,500 m2 in total (around a tenth of the surface of the reservoir). They have a capacity of 6.3MW and were initially constructed in sections before being towed out into the reservoir.

The pros of floating solar arrays

“One of the major benefits to floating solar is that there is all this space in areas of London or other cities, where you have a large area on top of the reservoir that’s not being used,” says Liv Harder from Lightsource Renewable Energy, the company that installed the floating panels. The good news is that the cost of solar panels has gone down nine times in the last five years, and the floats themselves also continue to go down in price, making such projects more affordable. Apart from that, installing solar arrays on water does not require planning permission, unlike similar projects on land.

 

floating farm London1

Photo source: Lightsource

 

floating farm London2

Photo source: Lightsource

 

Source: The Guardian

 

Media

More in this category: « These green coins is a new way to get people to recycle NASA flies over the poles to monitor ice loss »
Read 1163 times Last modified on Monday, 19 June 2017 14:58
  • Social sharing:
  • Add to Facebook
  • Add to Delicious
  • Digg this
  • Add to StumbleUpon
  • Add to Technorati
  • Add to Reddit
  • Add to MySpace
  • Like this? Tweet it to your followers!
Tagged under
  • Environmental Engineer
  • floating farm
  • solar floating farm
  • London
  • Queen Elizabeth II
  • reservoir

Latest from TheCivilEngineer.org

  • Recycled aggregate concrete as an alternative to conventional concrete
  • Remarkable underwater tunnel featuring stunning roundabout in Faroe Islands
  • Crane collapses onto a building in London
  • 5-story building in China is relocated using robotics technology
  • Iconic bridge in UK indefinitely closes

Related items

  • Crane collapses onto a building in London
  • Two buildings collapse in London during renovation works
  • Building collapses in London after explosion: 2 casualties
  • Hammersmith Bridge in London closes after propagation of existing cracks
  • UK plans to improve smart roadways
back to top
Place your ad here - Reach throusands of Proffesionals!

Search News

Filter By Category

More News On

bridge China Climate Change Earthquake Environmental Engineer Infrastructure Landslide Newsletter Structural engineer USA

Facebook Twitter Youtube Linkedin

Sign up for our newsletters

Our Resources

Contribute

Services

Advertising Kit 2020

Contact Us

Copyright © 2002-2021 Elxis s.a.
Powered by ARGO-E LLC. All rights reserved.
Disclaimer - Copyrights & Permissions - Cookies

TheCivilEngineer.org uses third party cookies to improve our website and your experience when using it.

To find out more about the cookies we use and how to delete them visit our Cookies page. Learn more

I understand
Latest News