ONE of York’s top hotels is planning to install solar panels on its roof.

The Grand York has submitted a planning application to City of York Council to install 94 panels on the roof of the part of the 5-star hotel known as Roman House.

Roman House is a former office block, which was retrofitted to become part of the hotel, creating 100 extra rooms.

Plans say the roof mounted solar panels will supply electricity to the hotel.

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Each panel would have a capacity of 565Wp, giving a total capacity of 53.1kWp.

The application said: “This will be used onsite as part of a community energy project (supported by the North East and Yorkshire Net Zero Hub) to contribute to the decarbonisation of the electricity supply of the Grand Hotel.

“We anticipate that the array will generate around 43MWh per year, all of which will be consumed by the Grand Hotel, reducing their carbon emissions by between 9 and 10 tonnes per year.”

It continued: “As the array is very flat to the ground and installed at fifth- and sixth-floor levels it will not be visible from many other locations in this part of the city - it will not be visible from the city walls.

“The southerly orientation means that no glint or glare is possible to the neighbouring Malmaison hotel nor to the Network Rail offices across Rougier Street, both of which are to the north of the site and will therefore see the rear of the panels.

“The proposal forms part of a project to establish community owned renewable electricity generation across the city, supported by both the City of York Council and the North East and Yorkshire Net Zero Hub,” the application added.

Several well-known York buildings have sought to install solar panels on their roof, or they have received approval.

They include York Minster, who in July this year began installing 183 panels on the South Quire roof area, which dates back to 1361, after receiving planning consent from City of York Council.

The panels, believes the minster will generate 30 per cent of the power it uses, and forms part of its carbon reduction ambitions.

Supermarket giant Sainsbury’s recently received planning approval from the city council to erect 704 solar panels on the roof of its supermarket in Monks Cross Drive. The panels will have a capacity of 314kWp.

Last Year, First York also installed 108 panels on the rooftop of its depot in James Street. They cover 210m2 of its engineering workshops, producing 33,000KwH of energy a year, enough to power ten standard 3-bed homes.