Global - Technology - Review

London is set to have the world's largest solar roof to be installed on what is going to be a bridge spanning the River Thames on the new Blackfriar's station. When completed Solarcentury's 4,400 solar panels will cross 6000sq metres of space across the city's water.

Around 900,000 kilowatt hours of electricity will be produced every year by the bridge that is being upgraded by Network Rail to cater for more passengers.

The bridge will reduce the annual emissions of the station by more than 500 tons and renewable energy will account for half of Blackfriars' needs.

Derry Newman, Chief Executive, Solarcentury, said: “It’s fantastic to see this project finally come to fruition. Blackfriars Bridge is an ideal location for solar; a new, iconic large roof space, right in the heart of London.

“Station buildings and bridges are fixed parts of our urban landscape and it is great to see that this one will be generating renewable energy every day into the future. Unknown to most, there are many hundreds of buildings now powered by solar in the capital as investment in this technology increases. For people to see that solar power is working is a vital step towards a clean energy future.”

Various solar powered bridges are already under construction throughout the world, Brisbane has many  footbridges that use the renewable energy to power local areas, however London will be the first city to have one of such scale and that produces so much energy.