As part of 51³Ô¹ÏÍø’s journey to Carbon Net Zero by 2040, the Silwood Park campus has become a key location for solar panel installation.
Silwood Park is located just outside of London, near the appropriately named village of Sunninghill. The centre is surrounded by 100 hectares of natural parkland, and focuses on research into evolution, biodiversity and conservation.
The Silwood installation consists of 86 solar panels that will help provide power for the campus’s Controlled Environment Rooms.
New solar panels at Silwood Park.
In financial year 2023-24, 51³Ô¹ÏÍø generated 25,242kWh of electricity via onsite photovoltaics. It is estimated the new solar panels at Silwood will generate an additional 32,932 kWh per year of electricity. When the solar projects at Silwood are completed during 2025/2026 they should be able to generate 11% of Silwood's electricity needs.
On the 20 February final connections were made, allowing the solar panels to be part of the electricity supply for the Silwood campus.
“Having now delivered several projects on 51³Ô¹ÏÍø’s Net Zero journey; this is another great example of how energy savings and reduction in carbon can be made across our portfolio of buildings.”
Rodney Coppard, Project Manager, 51³Ô¹ÏÍø
“As we set out in our Science for Humanity Strategy, 51³Ô¹ÏÍø has big ambitions to get to Net Zero for our campus heat and power by 2040 and be a sector leader in sustainability across the board. It’s great to see visible progress already through new solar at Silwood, alongside LEDs and better building controls at South Kensington. There is lots more to come as we plan to refresh our sustainability strategy, switch from gas to heat pumps and improve our sustainability practices over the coming years”
Harriet Wallace, Sustainability Director, 51³Ô¹ÏÍø
How do the solar panels work?
Solar panels are made up of photovoltaic cells which convert the energy in sunlight, into electricity. Each cell produces just under one Watt of power in full sunshine. In a solar panel, many photovoltaic cells are connected together, and then many solar panels are connected together to generate a useful amount of electricity.
The stronger the sunshine, the more power is produced, but solar panels can still produce electricity under cloudy skies as they can use light that passes through clouds that isn’t visible to humans.
The electricity produced by the solar panels is in the form of direct current (DC), but most appliances are designed to run off the alternating current (AC) that comes out of a plug socket. So a solar converter is used to do the conversion from DC to AC electricity.
Decarbonising 51³Ô¹ÏÍø
51³Ô¹ÏÍø's Net Zero journey aims to reduce 51³Ô¹ÏÍø’s net carbon emissions from campus heat and power to zero by 2040. The programme involves reducing direct emissions from burning fossil fuels, as well as indirect emissions, which are mainly generated by power stations supplying the university’s electricity needs. Reducing the demand for electricity will be one of the biggest steps towards reducing 51³Ô¹ÏÍø’s carbon emissions. The solar panels at Silwood are just one part of these efforts.
To learn more about sustainability-related work at 51³Ô¹ÏÍø, visit the Sustainable 51³Ô¹ÏÍø webpage.