A Scottish car park starts producing power as well as parking spaces

A car park in Stepps now does two jobs: sheltering vehicles and making electricity for the building beside it.

Scottish Water has switched on 2,250 solar panels above parking spaces at its headquarters. The installation is expected to supply more than a third of the site’s electricity, using space already devoted to cars.

The panels are bifacial, meaning they collect light on both sides. Scottish Water estimates annual generation of around 0.87 gigawatt-hours and carbon savings of about 160 tonnes.

Delivery partner OCS described the £2.4 million project at its launch: underground cables connect the panels and inverters to a new electrical switchboard. Construction was planned in phases to keep the office operating.

Those annual savings are forecasts, rather than a full year of measured results. Solar also covers only part of the headquarters’ demand.

Still, the finished carport offers a practical example other organisations can examine: adding clean power above an everyday working space, while reducing the electricity that has to be bought in.

Sources

• Scottish Water — the completed carport and generation forecasts
• OCS — project cost, electrical connections and phased delivery