Gloucester Cathedral, a building famous for hosting the Coronation of King Henry III, being the final resting place of King Edward II, and, more recently, appearing in three Harry Potter films and an episode of Sherlock, is set to become the oldest cathedral in the UK to install a commercial sized solar PV system on its roof.
Thanks to money from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Gloucester Cathedral is about to undergo a £6million development project with the installation of solar PV front and center. Mypower, a Gloucestershire-based company, was awarded the contract to add 150 solar panels to the roof of the Cathedral. Specifically, the panels will be added to the 30-meter high Nave roof, which was built almost 1,000 years ago, and will be impossible to see from the surrounding area.
The Church of England’s Shrinking the Footprint campaign wants to reduce its carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. The Cathedral’s new 42kW solar array will contribute to the overall goal of the Church of England by reducing energy costs by 25% for the historic structure.
There are some significant shading issues, however, due to the Cathedral’s design. Mypower used animated graphics to demonstrate the shading at different times of the day and year in order to find the right balance between capital cost and electricity yield.
In early October, Mypower will begin installing the panels with commissioning following four weeks later.
Related Stories
Accelerate Live! | Jun 24, 2018
Watch all 19 Accelerate Live! talks on demand
BD+C’s second annual Accelerate Live! AEC innovation conference (May 10, 2018, Chicago) featured talks on AI for construction scheduling, regenerative design, the micro-buildings movement, post-occupancy evaluation, predictive visual data analytics, digital fabrication, and more. Take in all 19 talks on demand.
Sustainability | Jun 13, 2018
Largest Passive House office building in the U.S. will be built in Chicago’s West Loop
Solomon Cordwell Buenz is designing the building.
| Jun 11, 2018
Accelerate Live! talk: Regenerative design — When sustainability is not enough
In this 15-minute talk at BD+C’s Accelerate Live! conference (May 10, 2018, Chicago), HMC’s Eric Carbonnier poses the question: What if buildings could actually rejuvenate ecosystems?
| May 30, 2018
Accelerate Live! talk: T3 mass timber office buildings
In this 15-minute talk at BD+C’s Accelerate Live! conference (May 10, 2018, Chicago), architect and mass timber design expert Steve Cavanaugh tells the story behind the nation’s newest—and largest—mass timber building: T3 in Minneapolis.
Sustainability | May 16, 2018
Sustainability is dead: Regenerative architecture is the new green
Is sustainability a model that our culture should adopt and promote knowing that the bucket will one day be empty?
Sustainability | Apr 18, 2018
The 10 sustainability trends that forward-thinking organizations have on their minds
The future office strives to be better, focus more on the people who inhabit it, and contribute to the success of the company.
Green | Apr 13, 2018
evolv1 earns Canada’s first Zero Carbon Building-Design certification
The multi-tenant commercial office building is currently under construction.
Sustainability | Apr 11, 2018
Hampshire College is home to the largest Living Certified higher education project in the world
The project joins 16 other Living Buildings certified to date.
Sustainability | Apr 10, 2018
Thermal comfort, big impact
CallisonRTKL’s Pablo La Roche explains how outdoor thermal comfort could mitigate the effects of climate change.
Sustainability | Apr 9, 2018
Planning for 100: Looking beyond the horizon of zero-net-energy buildings
Imagine a future where buildings and infrastructure are 100% utilized and 100% responsive.