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This 70,000 square foot concrete and stainless steel structure houses the largest solar module manufacturing line in the United States. The facility is designed as a prototype both for the emerging pv industry and for integration of PV technology in architecture. Originally built for Advanced Photovoltaic Systems. The building is currently the US headquarters of BP solar. The heart of the project is a PV glass cube containing the factory's control center. The PV cladding, in combination with a solar panel entrance canopy and a translucent PV skylight, produces all the power necessary for the control center's lighting and air conditioning. A diagram of the principles of photovoltaic energy at the atomic level is cast into the pavement at the entrance, further announcing the building's relationship to the renewable energy of the sun Completed in 1991. |
