CLINGING to the sunny side of a building at the University of Northumbria in Newcastle upon Tyne is a 40-kilowatt power plant. The photovoltaic array, which was officially opened last week, has already generated up to 18 kilowatts from the weak winter sunshine. The cells, which keep the weather off as well as producing power, are silicon wafers that turn about 17 per cent of the sunlight鈥檚 energy into electricity
The building鈥檚 original cladding was falling off, so Bob Hill, director of the Newcastle Photovoltaics Applications Centre, decided to replace it with the dual-purpose shielding.
Many energy experts reckon that solar panels will be able to compete with existing power supplies early next century. By then, says Hill, 鈥渨e will have had 15 years experience with this building. We鈥檒l be able to tell architects what works鈥�.
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