Powering 1,900 seats - Wales Millennium Centre

Powering 1,900 seats – Wales Millennium Centre

Wales Millennium Centre wanted to find a way to produce enough energy themselves, to power a 1,900-seat auditorium. Located at the heart of the regenerated Cardiff Bay, the Centre is the national arts centre of Wales and from the moment it first opened its doors in 2004, the team were very keen to lead from the front when it came to demonstrating its sustainable credentials… step forward solar!

The installation

We were delighted to help realise the most recent stage of this ambition, by installing 720 345W JA solar modules and 4 Solis inverters on 6 of its south-facing roof spaces.

The roof space itself is made up of five smaller flat roofs and one larger metal seam roof, so we used a mix of Van der Valk mounting systems too, with a non-penetrative clamping over the metal seam roof – and to give you an indication of scale, we needed a crane for two days to lift everything on to the roof for the project!

Facts and figures

And it’s all worth it. Solar power will produce around 10% of the electrical energy that the Centre uses each year (based on pre covid figures of 2019) and the predicted annual generation of 192,922 kW hours is more than enough to power its stage activities (including the heating and cooling of the auditorium) for each year, over the next 25 years.

A commitment realised…

David Bonney, Building Conservation and Engineering Manager at Wales Millennium Centre said:

“As an iconic building in the Welsh capital, it is important to us that we promote our sustainable credentials and demonstrate our commitment to reducing our carbon footprint. Teaming up with Joju Solar has allowed the Centre to achieve this ambition. Despite large cranes being present at both the front and rear of the Centre to achieve the lift of equipment to the various roof spaces, the impact was minimal meaning it was ‘business as usual’ throughout the process.

The project has presented both Wales Millennium Centre and Joju with some challenges, but working together the teams have increased, and improved, the Centre’s environmental performance and has delivered a first-class result. Employing a preventative approach to environmental concerns is imperative to the Centre, ensuring our ongoing commitment to creating a cleaner, greener outlook for the future generations of Wales.”

Now that’s what we call a curtain raiser!

It looks stunning too, and we have absolutely loved working with Wales Millennium Centre, David and the team, to design and install the solar solution on this iconic building.

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