Yesterday marked the beginning of the installation of 4,400 solar panels above the Blackfriars Station, which when completed will appear as a solar bridge 2 miles long. The image above is a computer generated image of what the solar bridge will look like when completed in 2012, ahead of the London Olympic Games.
The huge solar panel installation will help offset the amount of energy used at Blackfriars Station, as the Guardian reports:
Solarcentury, the UK company managing the installation, expects the panels to generate around 900,000kWh of electricity a year, providing half of the station’s energy and reducing annual CO2 emissions by an estimated 511 tonnes.
In addition to installing solar panels across the roof of the station, further efforts to reduce the amount of energy used at Blackfriars include sun pipes to provide more natural lighting, as well as rain harvesting systems for water usage.
Check out pictures of the construction below:
Image source: Building.co.uk