Solaria Corp., a California-based solar module manufacturer, has been selected as a participant in the U.S. General Services Administration’s (GSA) Green Proving Ground (GPG) program.
The GPG leverages GSA’s real estate portfolio to evaluate innovative sustainable building technologies. The program selected Solaria after extensive testing of the company’s building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) solutions, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (LBNL) new FLEXLAB test bed.
As a result, the GSA is moving forward with a commercial pilot installation of the technology this year, to further to the readiness for commercial-scale deployments across its portfolio.
A federal building in Kansas City, Mo., was chosen for the commercial pilot. While demonstrating the BIPV technology in an occupied building, Solaria and the GSA, along with LBNL, will collect energy generation, thermal performance, daylighting, glare and occupant comfort data in comparison with non-BIPV windows in the same building.
“The Green Proving Ground program is committed to driving innovation that improves building performance,” says Kevin Powell, GPG program manager at GSA. “We hope that real-world evaluations like this one will accelerate adoption of sustainable building technologies around the nation.”
