8,000 solar panels to power Mabru morning market

It has taken three months to build, but the City of Brussels' largest solar panel installation is now complete.

Almost 8,000 panels have been placed on the roof of Mabru, the city's morning wholesale produce market. The panels will provide up to a third of the market's electricity needs - the equivalent of 590 homes. Any surplus produced will be sold to the national grid.

This was a joint business plan between Mabru and electricity firm Engie Sun4Business, which invested in the panels and installed them, gaining ownership of them for the next 10 years.

With 13,000m² of solar panels, the Mabru installation is the biggest in the City of Brussels - and one of the biggest in the whole Brussels region, although it is some way behind the Audi factory in Forest, which has 37,000m².

Mabru is one of the most important industrial zones in the Brussels region, with more than 100 wholesalers selling a range of fresh products each morning.