ONYX SOLAR’S PV GLASS FOR THE LARGEST SKYLIGHT OF LATIN AMERICA

2,300 sqm of polycrystalline photovoltaic glass manufactured by Onyx Solar will protect Plaza Olivar’s passersby and power the building.

 

By the hand of the architect Enrique Ruiz Gutierrez, an old distribution center of the company LUMEN in Mexico City is undergoing a complete revitalization into a shopping center of more than 40,000 square meters. In it, the largest photovoltaic skylight of the country (2,300 sqm) will feature 800 units of Onyx Solar’s PV glass.

In addition to generating enough electricity to power the lighting of the common areas, elevators, and escalators, the photovoltaic glass is walkable, which helps its cleaning. It will also protect the passersby from the sun and the extreme temperature, increasing the comfort inside of the building.

LAST SHIPMENT OF ONYX SOLAR PV GLASS FOR THE LARGEST PV SKYLIGHT OF THE WORLD

The next phase of the installation of the 5,575 sqm (60,000sqft) of Onyx Solar’s PV Glass at Bell Works’ photovoltaic skylight has begun. In August we sent the last pieces of glass to New Jersey that are being installed in this awesome building. The PV glass will enable the building to generate its own free and clean energy, and it also dresses a space for meeting and being inspired.

The iconic building designed by Eero Saarinen is living a complete revitalization that has transformed the place into a mixed-used ‘metroburb,’ complete with spaces for work and entertainment. The construction has been one of the winners of Modernism at the American Awards.

BEST GLOBAL PHOTOVOLTAIC GLASS PROVIDER

Onyx Solar® received the acknowledgement at the Sustainable Building Awards 2016

BUILD Magazine awarded Onyx Solar as the best global photovoltaic glass provider at the Sustainable Building Awards 2016. The magazine highlighted Onyx Solar®’s contribution to sustainable design, which plays a key role in the reduction of greenhouse gases, as well as the company’s career, involving more than 70 projects in all five continents.

Onyx Solar was also awarded in the Best Photovoltaic Glass Project category for the circular crystalline-silicon skylights installed in the American Airlines Arena, home to NBA’s Miami Heat.

A BRAND NEW COLORFUL ENERGY

Onyx Solar rolled out a complete new full range of colored photovoltaic glass last month in San Francisco, during the 2012 Green Building International Conference – the most important sustainable building exhibition in the world, with more than 30,000 visitors-. That was the event selected to launch this new product, which allows any sustainable project to configure a customized design in any color (or combination of colors) while generating clean and free energy.

The wide range of tones and colors provides to any architectural design – curtain wall, brise soleil, skylight, ventilated façade, canopy… – a new world of possibilities to integrate photovoltaic materials into buildings. With this innovative product, Onyx Solar shows that implementing green building solutions is compatible with an aesthetic architectural design and gives an absolute freedom of choice to integrate renewable energy into buildings.

In addition to energy generation, Onyx Solar multifunctional solutions also provide other benefits to the buildings which incorporate them: Provide both thermal and sound insulation and filter out harmful radiations of natural light (IR & UV).

Onyx Solar has proven once again that is a benchmark company in the BIPV (building integrated photovoltaics) sector, always making an effort to turn customer’s will into reality. Our main objective is to meet client’s requirements – regardless of whether they are an architectural firm, a corporation or a private property – offering almost infinite possibilities of configuration for color, transparency, size and thickness.

Onyx Solar, First Autodesk CleanTech Partnet in Spain

Onyx Solar and Autodesk have agreed for the former to become CleanTech Partner of the latter. The company developing photovoltaic constructive materials has become the first in Spain, and one of few in Europe, to formalize this strategic partnership with architecture’s software giant.

With this agreement, Onyx will work with Autodesk on the development of new solutions combining the powerful design software together with the technical knowledge of Onyx Solar multidisciplinary team. This recognition comes as a recognition for our work in many ways. On one hand, Autodesk has selected Onyx among thousands of companies willing to get this partnership, acknowledging our commitment toward sustainable building. On the other hand, being the first ones in Spain to achieve it allows us to stand as pioneers on the sustainable building and photovoltaic constructive materials development sector.

Onyx Solar will be exhibiting at the largest green building expo in the World

Onyx Solar’s commitment toward green building in undeniable. Thus, from the beginning it has worked side by side with the US Green Building Council, the institution promoting the sector in the US and the creator of the LEED certification. That’s why the company will be exhibiting during the next edition of the GreenBuild Expo, who will take place in Chicago from Novermber, 17^th to 19^th.

The wind city will gather the largest companies in the World involved in the green building movement as it’s a must attend trade show for the sector. Apart from that, architects from architects offices from the States and abroad will get to the McCormick Place to know firsthand the latest trends in sustainable building.

For those interested in knowing more about Onyx Solar’s latest products, you can visit the company’s booth, number 2697 during the event.

The Green Movement

Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao

“Green architecture, arguably the biggest single movement in the field since the emergence of modernism a century ago”. The last blog post of the Los Angeles Times journalist Christopher Hawthorne is devastating. And the comment comes to justify his critics to a survey undertaken by Vanity Fair to determine the most iconic architectural work in the last 30 years, which didn’t take into account sustainable building. Thus, among more than 50 prestigious architects including Foster, Gehry, Hadid or Pelli; the Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao finished in the first place.

The Adam Joseph Lewis Center de Oberlín (Ohio)

As a response to that ranking, Architecture Magazine published his own survey which only considered green buildings. The winner? The Adam Joseph Lewis Center in Oberlín (Ohio), designed by William McDonough + Partners, followed by the California Academy of Sciences of Renzo Piano. It’s odd that the Italian architect is the only one alongside Foster that has two buildings in the ranking.

Hawthorne’s article is not only interesting for checking the results of the surveys but also to put in context both rankings, and the phrase with which we started this post makes us really happy as we feel we are participating in this green movement which is becoming more and more important.

Green Building Survey Throws up Surprising Results

A majority of green building industry professionals in the US jointly surveyed by the Green Building Insider, Allen Matkins, and the Constructive Technologies Group (CTG) have firmly endorsed their support for green building projects despite the recession, owing to their advantages such as savings in energy and operational expenses. Over 1,600 construction and design professionals across the US participated in the Fourth Annual Green Building Survey, which analyzed present-day attitudes on trends, expenses, construction, certification processes, and risks related to green building projects.

Green building is considered to be more prone to construction risks, in spite of the fact that building tests ordered by LEED help in the reduction of risks caused by building failure. As per the survey, the key steps to ensure the reduction of building system failure risks include employing green consultants such as LEED-AP consultants, measuring and re-commissioning, testing the green building periodically, and contractual risk shifting.

In contrast, the survey reported a decrease in respondent support for LEED certification, as compared to surveys conducted in 2008 and 2009. The gap between LEED certification and endorsement for green construction has been widening for the last two years.

LEED certification was introduced by the US Green Building Council with the goal to represent the top 25% of construction projects in the US. As compared to this initial goal, the present LEED support level is high. The economic downturn posed hurdles to the construction of green buildings. However, the economic situation forced green building projects to evaluate financial benefits including saving energy and operational costs of green building projects.

The Green Survey has provided a reasonable pulse of respondents, related to expenses, risks, and importance of the green building sector, according to Bryan Jackson, editor of the Green Building Update, Adjunct Professor with USC teaching Green and Sustainable Construction, and chair of Green and Sustainable Construction Practice Group of Allen Matkins. Jackson added that this survey, covering the most rapidly growing construction sector, is among the largest surveys of professionals in the green building industry.

More than 50% of green building professionals felt that the LEED Gold rating increased green building project expenses by more than 4%, and around 30% reported LEED Gold rating expenses as less than 4%. Reasons for such expense variations could be due to the difference in the level of problems encountered in awarding LEED Gold standards for different buildings, such as corporate buildings versus hotels, as well as the multiplicity of local codes and difference in particular regions that enhance the minimum green energy standards to close on LEED Gold standards.

Source: AZO Cleantech

Fewer sick days in green buildings

Tenants in green buildings experience increased productivity and fewer sick days, says a survey. According to the study conducted by the University of San Diego and commercial real estate broker CB Richard Ellis Group, green buildings have lower vacancy rates and higher rents than non-green counterparts, reports Chris Palmeri of Business Week.

Respondents of the survey said that an average of 2.88 fewer sick days in their current green office versus their previous non-green office. About 55 percent of respondents indicated that employee productivity had improved. The study also found that tenants in green buildings are more productive based on two measures: the average number of tenant sick days and a productivity change.

The increase in productivity translated into a net impact of about $20 per square foot. The study also showed that green buildings have 3.5 percent lower vacancy rates and 13 percent higher rental rates than the market. Based on the average tenant salary, an office space of 250 square feet per worker and 250 workdays a year, the decrease in sick days translated into a net impact of nearly $5.00 per square foot per year. The economic impact of the total green construction market from 2000 to 2008, the study found, was $178 billion. It created or saved 2.4 million jobs and generated $123 billion in wages.

Source: Silicon India

SBTC Finalizes Public Version of IGCC in Austin

The Code Council’s Sustainable Building Technology Committee (SBTC) wrapped up its work in drafting the Public Version of the new International Green Construction Code (IGCC) at its fifth and final session January 28-30 in Austin, Texas. The 29 committee members, along with dozens of Work Group participants, labored in three intense days of amendments, debates and consensus, which will result in a March 15 unveiling of the first IGCC Public Version. This will provide an immediate resource document for current efforts underway in state and local jurisdictions, as well as the basis for public comments and subsequent hearings to provide a second Public Version for consideration at the Code Development Hearings in 2011.

The IGCC efforts launched last summer in Washington, D.C., with subsequent SBTC meetings in Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia, Ft. Myers and Austin. The open meetings drew a large group of observers, many of whom participated in Work Groups or in providing testimony to the drafters.

SBTC Vice Chair Chris Green, representing the AIA, said the IGCC “is a game-changing code.” Green emphasized the volume and quality of work accomplished in a short amount of time, and that he and others had gained new knowledge and respect for all the participants.

Code Council Deputy Senior Vice President Mike Pfeiffer served as the SBTC Secretariat. Pfeiffer announced that in addition to posting the Public Version by March 15, the Code Council Board will appoint a 12-15 person Public Comment Hearing Committee that will include some SBTC members as well as new members. The public comment deadline is May 14, with public hearings scheduled for August 14-22 in Chicago.

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