Domestic and commercial buildings account for fifty per cent of the UK’s total emissions of the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO2). This represented over 275 million tonnes of CO2 in 1993 3,4. The trend for the increasing use of computers and the over-use of air conditioning is a problem. Studies done for the Department of Trade and Industry show that electricity use in buildings is likely to be ten to fifteen per cent higher in the year 2000 than in 1990 5.

These figures are more alarming when urban areas are examined. The commercial sector uses 25 per cent of London’s energy and is responsible for thirty per cent of the capital’s CO2 emissions. In parts of central London commercial energy use is equivalent to an annual consumption of 33,000 tonnes of coal per square kilometre 6.

The desire to reduce the impacts of such intense energy use has led many architects and building developers to use a variety of energy efficient building techniques such as the incorporation of passive solar design and natural ventilation. The trend for greener buildings is increasing, and 25 per cent of new buildings7 are classified under the BREEAM environmental rating.

As the only electricity generating renewable technology that can be deployed directly in the urban environment, solar photovoltaic power offers architects and the building industry an opportunity to go one stage further in the design of low energy buildings by using solar energy to create a supply of clean, climate-friendly electricity. Every square metre of solar photovoltaics installed on a building in the UK will, in its lifetime, displace one tonne of carbon dioxide.