London has quite a few solar power installations. We saw some of them. Others we read about. One bank we looked for, but ended up failing to see firsthand is the HSBC headquarters tower in the Docklands. The Docklands, a former seaport and industrial area in East London, has transformed into chic urban offices and living spaces over the last 20-plus years.
This past spring, HSBC, one of the UK’s largest banks installed a 617 square meter solar photovoltaic array on its roof. The company’s Canary Wharf tower, a 44-story building, hosts the array and makes it the tallest office building in Europe to have solar panels. Because the building is 700 feet tall, engineers designed a mounting system that can withstand wind speeds of up to 140 mph.
Bank officials anticipate that the installation will generate more that 1.5 million kilowatt hours of electricity over the course of the building’s lease (they didn’t mention how long the lease lasts).
The solar panels are part of HSBC’s ongoing efforts to make good on its pledge made in 2005 to become carbon neutral. When it unveiled its solar installation, the company also announced that it has already decreased its overall energy consumption by seven percent since 2004 through other system efficiencies. HSBC has additional plans in the works to increase its energy efficiency. Next up, the company will upgrade its air conditioning system.