The first 8-storey office building covered with solar panels in Australia is expected to open in mid-2023, helping to reduce 77 tons of CO2 per year.
An 8-storey building about to rise on Spencer Street, West Melbourne, Australia, will become the country's first office building with a "solar skin", marking a turning point in the construction industry, Interesting Engineering reported on June 6. This $6 million office building will be equipped with 40 solar panels that are as thick as regular facade glass.
When completed, the solar panel system is expected to provide enough energy to meet almost all of the building's needs, thereby reducing electricity costs. It will also become a carbon neutral building in the next few years, providing a good example of the prospects for decarbonization in the construction industry.
The building was designed by Melbourne architect Pete Kennon, built by Crema Constructions and is expected to open mid-2023. The solar skin is produced by German company Avancis, called the Skala system.
Skala uses thin-film PV modules placed on a grid to transmit the produced electricity to the building's main power supply. The system can generate 50 times more energy than typical solar panels installed on household rooftops.
Once completed, the system will provide nearly enough electricity to meet the entire building's energy needs, while reducing 77 tons of CO2 per year. In addition, the building also added solar panels on the roof.
The building will pay off its carbon debt without relying on carbon offsets or other payment measures, Kennon said. "It's entirely possible, although a building that harnesses sunlight through its 'skin' sounds like something you'd dream about or see in a cartoon," Kennon said.
Australia is a leading country in solar energy, but covering panels around buildings has never been applied in this country. This is why the Spencer Street project will help set a new quality standard, allowing the solar skin to undergo final testing before being approved for use on other buildings.
In Europe, office buildings covered with solar panels are not new. For example, an office building on Miller Street in Manchester, England, also has solar panels mounted around it and has been producing electricity for many years. On the other side of the world, Taiwan's Sun Rock project plans to build a building covered with solar cells that can generate about 1 million kWh of electricity.
Meanwhile, other sustainable technologies are also helping the construction industry become "greener", for example transparent solar cells allow electricity to be produced from windows in offices, homes, and sunroofs on cars. , even smartphones.
According to VnExpress