Banking giant HSBC has solar projects planned for its biggest skyscraper and world headquarters, the Canary Wharf building in London. The company has installed specialized shades to cool the building as well as is planning for a large-scale solar array that will feed enough energy back to the grid to power nearly two dozen homes.

The solar array, planned for the roof of the building, will cover two thousand square feet of their roof with 422 monocrystalline solar panels by Sharp. Monocrystalline panels offer some of the highest efficiency currently available. The HSBC array will be built to withstand gusts of up to 140 mph, necessary for mounting solar on one of Europe’s tallest headquarter buildings. Once built, the solar array will generate one and a half kilowatt hours of energy beyond what the building uses.

The building’s energy efficiency is improving at the same time, as HSBC has also installed specialized blinds as part of a $90M effort to reduce energy use. London’s Bright A Blind created a hybrid blind system to meet both business and environmental needs, providing options for presentations as well as reducing solar heat gain. It is great to see a banking leader making these types of improvements; let us hope others follow their lead!

Read more at Newswire and BusinessGreen.