Cardiff's Principality Stadium goes green with 3,000 solar panels on roof

The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) has spent around £1m putting more than 3,000 solar panels on the roof of the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, describing it as a "win-win" for fans. The WRU said the installation, which is the largest of its kind at any sports stadium in the UK, would save between £300,000 and £400,000 on energy bills every year. At a time when the union is under scrutiny over its plans to cut a regional rugby side, Gavin Marshall, the WRU's chief operating officer, said the investment made financial sense. The stadium, home of Welsh national rugby, has hosted high profile gigs from the likes of Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Oasis and Coldplay. Tinkering with such an iconic building could be risky but the work has been done "sympathetically" according to Darren Crossman, head of facilities and safety at the stadium. The 3,296 panels were driven through the stadium's large access tunnel, known as the Dragon's Mouth, before being placed on the covered pitch and lifted onto the roof with a huge crane and then connected, in a process which took months. "You can't see them from the ground level but what we've tried to do is make a mirror image on both sides of the stadium so that th