The CIS tower or the Co-operative Insurance Tower is the second tallest building in the great city of Manchester and is the UK’s largest solar powered project to date.
Built in 1962 the building was the tallest building in Manchester at the time and was clad in millions of mosaic tiles, which shimmered in the light to beautiful effect, compared to most 50′s and 60′s architecture this was a thing of wonder against a grey tower block horizon and many people booked flights to manchester to see the shiny behemoth. However, recently it had a major facelift as all the years of pollution and repairs have left the tiles looking dull and whilst doing this they also decided to save the environment and do their bit for climate change by replacing all the tiles with photovoltaic panels AKA solar panels. It cost £5.5 million to do but it can generate 180,000 kWh per year, which is probably a lot however I really don’t know what that actually means, i will presume however this is a good thing and it obviously has some benefit because the power it makes has been feeding power into the national grid since late 2005.
So I urge anyone who has never been to Manchester to hop on flights to the UK and take a visit to this amazing country side saving beauty and while you are there why not take a look around at all the other wonderful things Manchester has to offer
