CIS Solar Tower - The solar panel covered skyscraper

Green technology has always fascinated and inspired me. The solar tower of Seville, air-powered cars and now an entire skyscraper covered with solar panels. The office building of Co-operative Insurance (CIS), an insurance company, in Manchester has been transformed into Europe's largest vertical array of solar panels, designed to convert daylight into electricity.


The sides of this CIS owned skyscraper was original covered with small mosaic tiles, but after only six months, they began to fall of. They needed a solution and eventually came up with a brilliant and unique idea. After spending £5.5 million, three faces of the building was clad with a total of 7,244 solar panels generating 390kW of energy. The building also has 24 wind turbines on the roof, which provide 10% of the total power used by the building.




Close-up of the solar panels




The building when still under construction

Incidentally, this building is the tallest in Manchester and the 400 feet high solar panels is the largest in Europe. Also, this is the worlds' first and only such project.
Source: MetaFfficient, SkyscraperNews