The Newport City Council Kingsway Car Park Solar project, in collaboration with Newport Norse and Inspire Green, involved the installation of 780 solar panels on Kingsway multistorey car park’s roof, adding 390kWp to the council’s overall solar capacity and reducing emissions by 71 tonnes annually.
Background
Transitioning from gas to renewable sources of energy is imperative to reach net zero targets both locally and nationally. In line with Newport City Council’s organisational target of reaching net zero by 2030, and net zero as a city by 2050, NCC set a target to install 4MW of PV capacity by 2024-2025, and source 40 per cent of our consumed energy from local renewable sources by 2050.
The Welsh Government has also set a target for 70 per cent of Welsh electricity to derive from Welsh renewable energy sources by 2030. As a result, NCC is always exploring ways in which it can generate renewable energy from its estate and beyond. The Kingsway Urban Solar Array was a key contributor to surpassing the 4MW target in 2024-25 and demonstrates the opportunities for disused space in an urban environment.
Origins of the project
The project arose during the development of NCC’s new off-gas leisure centre. Due to competing priorities for using the roof space (e.g., biodiversity, drainage and leisure space), solar PV was deemed unfeasible for this project. As a result, NCC began to look at nearby buildings that could host solar units and identified Kingsway Car Park. At its peak, only 800 of the car park's 1050 spaces are used. The solar installation would reduce capacity by 133 spaces through closing the top floor so this was the perfect solution, transforming otherwise unused space into a space to generate local zero-carbon electricity to offset electricity usage in the leisure centre.
In 2022/2023, the car park used 425,255 units (kWh) of electricity and this is expected to rise due to the increase in EV charging points. The installation of the solar array aimed to generate 340,662 kWh per annum, accounting for 80 per cent of the site’s energy demand, and resulting in financial savings and an 80 per cent reduction in the site’s carbon emissions.
Minimising environmental impacts
There were two primary challenges to minimising environmental impacts. Firstly, NCC became aware of unethical forced labour in solar panel manufacturing. Although this led to a one-month delay, it was imperative to ethically source the panels and demonstrate compliance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Secondly, NCC had to design a new structure to fix the fencing and secure the access to the roof area, as it was not possible to directly fix new security gates and fencing into the existing structure.
Additionally, to maximise net zero results, NCC undertook energy optimisation projects in the car park such as lighting improvements and better control of CO fans to reduce energy usage. Alongside this, Solar Edge technology was installed to monitor the energy generated from the project and to optimise the energy generated by each panel through Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT).
Despite the challenges, the project was completed in May 2024 in a much shorter timeframe than expected and although there was higher cost for ethically sourced panels, NCC stayed within budget. This project will also pay for itself over a 10-year period, and any additional revenue can be used to support other council services.
Long-term benefits of the project
This scheme is particularly notable as one of the biggest solar arrays on a car park in Wales that utilises disused space and avoids impacting green spaces, which NCC would prefer to prioritise for biodiversity enhancement, social amenity and carbon sequestration.
Based on the energy generated to date, this project is expected to exceed the projected emissions and energy saving targets, generating more than 80 per cent of the site’s energy demand, or 367,000kWh annually. This contributes 10 per cent to our 4MW photovoltaic target and reduces annual CO2e emissions by 71 tonnes.
At the start of this project, NCC also aimed to limit the use of cement or concrete blocks to reduce the embodied carbon of the installation. Unfortunately, NCC were unable to overcome this challenge as the products available on the market did not comply with the manufacturer’s installation instructions. However, the lessons learned from this project have been invaluable for future projects.
Beyond emissions reductions, the excess electricity can be exported to the grid, providing additional revenue, and meeting additional demand to power the 28 new EV charging points within the car park that were installed shortly after the solar installation. Furthermore, through becoming aware of forced labour concerns, this project led NCC to develop an anti-forced labour process for our wider supply chain.
This project also provides the opportunity to export electricity to adjacent buildings via a private wire in the future, in addition to offsetting non-renewable electricity use in other buildings like the planned leisure centre.
Success and more funding
The success of the project has enabled NCC to apply for additional grant funding to install solar on other multistorey car parks. The project was also highly commended at the Energy Efficiency Awards 2024, and won Renewable Energy Project of the Year at the Edie Net Zero Awards 2025.
NCC hopes this model can be adopted by others to demonstrate what can be done with underutilised, unconventional space to reach net zero targets.