In pictures: Sun shines on Shropshire Council's new rooftop solar farm

You might not be able to see it from the road, but the top of Shrewsbury's Shirehall is now covered with hundreds of panels.

The 496 panels are part of Shropshire Council's aim to to generate a source of income and took nearly five weeks to install.

Rob Leighton, building surveyor in premises services, said the project was mostly done by hand once the panels and cradles were lifted to the roof by a telehandler – a lifter similar to a large fork lift truck.

He said: "We were working at three storeys high and so we had two tall scaffolding towers and two lower for the access to lower levels. After they were on the roof they were all moved across and work was all done by hand.

"Essentially it is a massive Meccano set. All of the brackets and cradles and supports were flat pieces that then had to be bolted together on the roof to create the cradles for the panels."

Mr Leighton's work, along with his team, means that electricity bills at the Shirehall will be cut by £16,000 a year as solar panels produce eight per cent of the total electrical energy needed to run the council building.

The £180,000 project will also give the council £1,000 from feed-in-tariff payments and are expected to have covered the costs in about 10 years. The energy production will reduce the council's carbon footprint by about 7,400kg CO2 a year.

The project's technical parts came when cabling had to be installed to connect the solar panels up to the grid so this electricity could be used by the authority's building.

Mr Leighton said it was the most technically and challenging part of the job.

He said: "Electricity is not a safe thing to be working with as such so we had to make sure all the procedures are in place."

Working three storeys high, the team also had to face the elements while installing large panels on the rooftop.

Thankfully, the conditions didn't hinder progress. Mr Leighton said: "The condition most likely to affect us was wind.

"Carrying the panels, your hands are full. You are walking round with a large sheet which is effectively a kite in the wind.

"We had to be careful of frosty conditions too to make sure it wasn't slippery and just pay close attention to health and safety.

"Now, it is all very low maintenance. The surface finish is self cleaning and the manning systems is inside the building so there is no need to go on the roof."

The result has lead to a cut in the carbon emissions from the council, as well as a stunning view for the authority's staff.

"It is spectacular," Mr Leighton said. "It is all invisible from the road but if you look out the correct windows it is amazing.

"There is nothing from the street that can hinder the appearance of the building.

"Beforehand looking out the window it was a flat roof, now it is full of solar panels."

As many as eight people worked on the project at a time, including electricians, roofers and scaffolding contractors.

Mr Leighton said the scheme also took a lot of planning ahead of work beginning. He said: "They had to all fit to the roof without breaking and ensure that it didn't break the weatherproof covering. The plans also had to ensure that the roof was strong enough to take the extra weight.

"Contractors presented us with the initial design and that was then verified by an engineer before going through the safety process.

Project

"We were working on a live building and it only affected people working inside very briefly. We had to close a couple of corridors but most of it was done out of hours including when the power was switched off to connect it all up. It is a large project for a roof, but wouldn't be as big as some solar farms are. It is a significant one to go on a roof though."

Shropshire Council is working to reduce its electricity used across the region with a number of initiatives.

It is currently looking at the idea of transforming former waste sites into solar parks in a bid to cut emissions and also generate an income.

Currently, its solar energy totals 1MWp – the amount of electricity used by 520 houses each year since 2012. It saves about 1,342,000 kg of CO2 – equivalent to the water boiled for 123,427,950 cups of tea.