Two canopies covered with solar panels have been fitted to the roof of Leicester’s Newarke Street car park, making it capable of powering the car park’s machines, lights, cameras and other facilities at the car park, as well as other nearby buildings.
The project involves 360 sqm of solar panels installed as part of the city council’s ongoing work to reduce its carbon footprint, and has cost £267,400, funded jointly by the city council and the European Regional Development Fund.
It follows the council’s successful bid for more than £4million of match-funding from the ERDF to support a range of projects that aim to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Elsewhere, solar panels have been installed at the city council’s highways depot at Leycroft Road, Beaumont Leys, in a £95k scheme capable of saving over 51 tonnes of carbon.
Leicester deputy city mayor for climate, economy and culture, Cllr Adam Clarke said: “This is part of our work to invest in low-carbon, energy-efficient measures for our buildings, but is also part of a wider move across the UK and further afield towards creating solar car parks like this.
“They enable electricity production in spaces which are open to the air and sunshine, as well protecting parked vehicles from the weather. In addition, they can help with electric vehicle charging in places like this where people coming into the city centre might park their cars for long periods of time.
“With energy prices currently so high, this is a sound investment in generating our own clean energy, using buildings and infrastructure that we already operate.”
The French Senate has recently made it a legal requirement for all existing and new car parks of 80 spaces or more to be covered by solar panels as part of its drive to increase the production of sustainable energy.
