ICLEI Member Glasgow (United Kingdom) has secured 940,000 GBP, from the European Commission, to transform a city car park into a solar power centre.

The project will see the building of a huge canopy of solar panels above the council-owned car park on Duke Street that will be primarily used to power the car park, which includes ten charging points for electric vehicles.

The project will also see the installation of a 500 kilowatt battery and a sophisticated controller that will allow for storage and sharing of the energy generated within the district captured via the solar panels.

It is intended that the solar panel canopy, which will cover the equivalent of over 130 car parking spaces, will be fully operational by October 2019.

Speaking about the project, Councillor Anna Richardson, the council’s City Convener for Sustainability and Carbon Reduction, said: “This is an exciting and dynamic project that can take Glasgow closer to our goal of becoming the most sustainable city in Europe… We hope the Duke St scheme will eventually be replicated on car parks all across the city, but we also hope that other cities across Europe can learn from what’s happening in Glasgow.”

The car park scheme is part of a wider initiative to develop a sustainable energy district in the city. To help reach this aim, Glasgow will receive over €4 million from the European Union to develop a suite of sustainable energy measures within the ‘smart street’ George Street- Duke Street corridor.

Glasgow is also part of a wider smart city consortium, RUGGEDISED, which includes ICLEI Members Rotterdam (Netherlands) and Umeå (Sweden).

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