Europe’s first large-scale solar car park is being installed at Wiltshire Council’s Five Rivers Health & Wellbeing Centre in Salisbury, England, with 3ti, a U.K. designer, installer, funder and operator of Solar Car Parks (SCPs), leading on the project.
The SCP will be constructed from sustainable Glulam timber beams — recyclable wood laminations bonded together offering a natural alternative to steel or concrete — and Glass-Glass solar panels from German manufacturer, Solarwatt. The engineered timber is three times stronger and a third lighter than structural steel and uses only a 10th of the energy it would take to produce an equivalent steel beam. The material has minimal environmental impact from its production, is highly repairable and is an excellent biofuel at the end of its life. The Glass-Glass solar panels offer high efficiency and long-term yields due to their bifacial technology, which means solar energy is captured on both sides of the panel, increasi