A Large scale "solar car park" has officially been opened in Salisbury

The car park is at Five Rivers Health and Wellbeing Centre, and was completed earlier this year by Wiltshire Council and solar, storage and smart EV charging specialist 3ti Energy Hubs.

3ti, working closely with the leisure centre and council also delivered the multi-award winning Papilio3 to provide the solar EV charging hub to the community.

The solar car park structure is made from Glulam, renewable, recyclable wood laminations bonded together to offer a natural alternative to steel or concrete.

Since the technology has been installed the solar arrays have generated in excess of 20MWh per month.

The solar installation at Five Rivers comprises three gullwing solar canopies covering 70 car park spaces.

Five Rivers Health and Wellbeing Centre use 100 per cent of the solar generation, which contributes approximately 10 per cent of overall electricity demand at the site.

In addition, to support the UK’s EV charging infrastructure, Five Rivers became the first leisure centre to install 3ti’s solar EV charging hub, Papilio3, built around an upcycled shipping container, and provides visitors and staff access to reliable, fast and safe EV charging.

Councillor Ian Blair-Pilling, Wiltshire Council Cabinet Member for Leisure, said: “We are proud that one of our flagship leisure centres in Wiltshire’s only city is home to this innovative technology which is having such a positive impact."

Ben Marchant, CEO at 3ti added: “We are incredibly proud to support Wiltshire Council in such forward-thinking sustainable initiatives. Being involved from the outset, it is fantastic to see the cost savings and efficiency achieved through the solar installations, and to witness the significant rise in EV charge point usage by visitors over recent months is truly inspiring.

"This trend is not only promising for Wiltshire but reflects the broader success we are observing across all our Papilio3 EV charging installations."