Solar Manchester

You know how sometimes you hear about something and are amazed you weren't aware of it before?

Well, it just happened to me. Mike (hubby) turned to me, slightly smugly I thought, and asked 'Where is Europe's largest solar array'. I plumped for Spain but he shook his head. 'Manchester' he said. 'What, Manchester, Italy?' (note the feeble attempt at humour to mask my surprise). 'No Manchester, Manchester!'

Apparently, The Co-operative Insurance have covered their impressive building in photo-voltaics and are making the claim that Mike so cheerfully waved in my face. According to a factoid on the CIS website, the array produces enough electricity every year to make 9 million cups of tea. Sorry, make that billion! Nine billion cups of tea.

And do you know, I had no idea. We live only about 25 mls from Manchester (this is Manchester in the UK by the way) and are account holders at The Co-operative Bank, but I'd never heard about this until now. Of course some of you are now casually studying your fingernails and saying 'Oh yes, that's old news' but I was genuinely surprised. I must have been asleep in 2007.

For those of you who want to read more take a look here, although the site doesn't appear to have been updated for quite a while - not even with the details of the completion and official opening a couple of years ago.

So all this is lovely and positive, but I have to confess that I shudder every time I see a glass clad building. The death toll for wild birds that crash into these shiny towers is horrifying. Thank heavens that some architects are now awakening to that fact and are planning to do something about it, shame that the movement is based in the USA - read more on Treehugger.