Solar Photovoltaic’s and Wind Turbines in the North West CIS, Portland Street, Manchester

The CIS tower in Manchester is a regional landmark, and is now becoming a beacon renewable energy project. The 28-storey Grade II listed Co-operative Insurance Society (CIS) headquarters has now been clad in electricity-producing photovoltaic tiles. The project was designed to clad the existing mosaic tiles which were crumbling away and will provide enough electricity to power 75 houses. The PV system, provided by Solar Century, has been installed on the South, East and West aspects of the building, with an installed capacity of 350kWp (pence per kilowatt). The CIS Tower was one of the tallest occupied buildings in Europe when it was built in 1962. This initiative will make it the largest single building with vertical arrangement PV installation in Europe. Micro-wind turbines have been installed on the roof of another CIS building in Manchester. The scheme will eventually boast 19 turbines and will be the largest commercial application of micro wind turbines in the UK.

Each turbine will produce 1KW of electricity.