March 1, 2016
...AND CHEAPER...:
World's biggest floating solar farm powers up outside London (Fiona Harvey, 29 February 2016, The Guardian)
On a vast manmade lake on the outskirts of London, work is nearing completion on what will soon be Europe's largest floating solar power farm - and will briefly be the world's biggest.But few are likely to see the 23,000 solar panels on the Queen Elizabeth II reservoir at Walton-on-Thames, which is invisible to all but Heathrow passengers and a few flats in neighbouring estates."This will be the biggest floating solar farm in the world for a time - others are under construction," said Angus Berry, energy manager for Thames Water, which owns the site. "We are leading the way, but we hope that others will follow, in the UK and abroad."Five years in planning and due to be finished in early March, the £6m project will generate enough electricity to power the utility's local water treatment plants for decades. The energy will help provide clean drinking water to a populace of close to 10 million people in greater London and the south-east of England, a huge and often unrecognised drain on electricity, rather than nearby homes.
Posted by Orrin Judd at March 1, 2016 2:46 PM