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Published: 19 January 2015
Category: News
Or, as Energy Live News says, ‘this is solar calling, over! Walkie Talkie gets panels’! Good headline, since this odd-looking skyscraper does rather look like a ‘walkie talkie’, but ‘solar’ too is just right, as it was this building that tried to melt cars when just completed and when the sun was just wrong. So perhaps the new solar PV system will help make amends. By James Hunt:
London’s 20 Fenchurch street skyscraper, nicknamed the ‘Walkie Talkie’ building on account of its shape, was developed by Land Securities and Canary Wharf Group and was designed by architect Rafael Vinoly. It gained some notoriety when, just after completion, the sun’s rays, reflected off the near parabolic curves of its vast wall of windows, started to melt the plastic parts of a parked Jaguar car, and damaged other things, including a bicycle, singed fabric and blistered paintwork…hot stuff…
This problem has long been fixed, but now – perhaps to make some amends, the ‘Walkie Talkie’ building’s big roof is being used to provide energy actually where it’s wanted – to power itself.
This is being achieved through the installation of a 50kWp solar photovoltaic (solar PV) array installed by solar installer, EvoEnergy, which is based in Nottingham and which won the accolade of ‘Solar Installer of The Year’ 2014 award at the annual Renewables awards.
The UK’s highest
This array comprises 250 x 200W modules roof-installed on top of the 38-storey building.
EvoEnergy says that this solar array is one of the UK’s highest. Being so high and with the building having a glass roof, was decidedly tricky and demanded a lot of thought and care. Eventually, the company decided on a rail-less system mounted on this glass roof. The associated inverters, however, are installed three floors further down.
To connect all the solar PV modules to the inverters below, EvoEnergy had to install over 90m of cabling – as a result, the installer had to use DC cable of greater than usual cross-sectional area to mitigate against the losses that would otherwise have occurred.
This solar PV installation was actually completed last year and is positioned above the building’s roof garden, which has just been opened to the public.
Commenting, EvoEnergy’s commercial project manager, James Sutton said: “This has been a unique and challenging project, from the design stage through to project management, logistics, risk assessment and completion.
He continued: “We knew that delivering a rail-less system at that height would be a challenge, but we were confident that we could create the kind of bespoke solution to deliver it, of course also taking every necessary safety precaution along the way.
“The finished solar system, sitting high above the building’s stunning Sky Garden, looks fantastic. It’s been a job well done by the whole team from start to finish,” concluded James Sutton.