Prince's plan to soak up the sun with panels - Charles wants Clarence House to be "carbon negative"
Published: 03 September 2010
by JAMIE WELHAM
THE Prince of Wales hopes to make his 180-year-old London residence Clarence House “carbon negative” after planners gave the green light to install solar panels on the roof.
Builders will fit 32 panels at a cost of £150,000, a project estimated to take 10 years to recoup the investment.
Experts have been called in to make sure the listed building is protected during the work. Council planning officers didn’t receive a single complaint about the panels, which will not be visible from the ground around the Pall Mall property because of the high parapets.
Prince Charles is an enthusiastic supporter of green energy, which he claims now accounts for a quarter of his households’ electricity.
The scheme aims at making the house “carbon negative”, meaning it generates more energy than it uses.
A document that went before Westminster’s planning committee on Thursday evening said: “The installation of solar panels on the roof of Clarence House will be the latest in a line of renewable technology projects undertaken by the household of HRH the Prince of Wales that not only have a direct benefit of reducing fossil fuel use and carbon dioxide emissions but also have an indirect impact by raising the profile of such technologies.”
It adds: “The solar panels would contribute towards the UK’s 2020 renewable energy and carbon reduction targets.”