Pioneering renewables
The Co-operative is amongst the world's leading businesses when it comes to tackling global climate change. 99% of our electricity was sourced from good quality renewable (or green) sources, such as wind and water power. We also off-set the remainder of our emissions, along with an extra 10% to cover legacy issues.
In a joint business venture with Scottish Power, we also have a wind farm on Co-operative farmland at Coldham in Cambridgeshire. The electricity generated from this wind farm alone is enough to meet the equivalent electricity needs of over 9,000 UK homes and planning permission has been granted to make this wind farm even bigger. A new wind farm on our farmland at Twin Rivers, Goole has also been given the go-ahead which should generate enough electricity each year to supply 16000 homes.
In 2005 we transformed The Co-operative Insurance office in Manchester into the largest vertical solar panel tower in Europe. The unique £5.5 million project, on what is the tallest office building in the UK outside London, began in 2004 when the original cladding began to fail. Thinking of a good long term solution was tricky since the tower was a grade II listed building and replacing with traditional cladding would have a negative ecological impact.
It was eventually decided to try the unique solution of cladding the tower with something a bit different - a grand total of 7,244 solar photovoltaic panels, designed to convert daylight into electricity. Once placed on the tower, the then Prime Minister Tony Blair flicked the switch in November 2005 to get the panels going.
Since then, the panels have created 180,000 units of renewable electricity each year - enough energy to make 9,000,000 cups of tea. There's even a peregrine falcon nesting box up on top with a camera installed to keep an eye on the birds' comings and goings.
Read more about the history of the Solar Tower.
Project Partners for the Solar Tower
- Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) -The Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) is responsible for the sustainable economic development of England's Northwest and has five key priorities: Business Development, Regeneration, Skills and Employment, Infrastructure, and Image.
We have worked with several partners to deliver the Solar Tower, these include:
