Powering up innovation

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This article was published 23/04/2021 (1806 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Innovation Centre is living up to its name.

Next week, electrical and construction crews will begin to install 400 energy-conducting solar panels — the first of their kind in North America — on its exterior.

The centre, which is the latest addition to Red River College’s Exchange District campus, will foster collaboration between businesses and students on concept and product development, testing and promotion.

The glass panels, called Kromatix building-integrated photovoltaics, are made by layering solar, thermal and electronic components.

Together with 138 rooftop panels, the college expects to offset its energy consumption by enough energy to power 18.5 average-sized houses.

With global markets for building-integrated photovoltaics expected to more than double by 2026, according to a recent report, the installation offers students a peek at technology on the cusp of widespread growth.

The solar panels’ inverters, which convert the energy for use in the building, also serve a second purpose.

“They collect information about how much power it’s producing and when,” said Joe Carey, chair of electrical engineering technology at Red River College.

That data will end up in a digital storage point accessible to students.

“They can actually see the real-world application and what it’s doing and how it’s doing it,” he said.

Carey and his department asked for sensors on the panels to collect environmental data, such as wind shear and ice cover. Understanding how conditions affect energy production will provide students with invaluable insight, he said.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to learn about the latest technology in sustainable energy,” he said.

This applies to the architectural engineering and construction management students too, he said, who will also get exposure to the technology.

A crucial benefit of the solar panels is they function as cladding, the outer layer covering a building. Unlike older solar panels, there’s no need to buy cladding separately.

Of course, the new tech costs more upfront than most traditional cladding. But brick and vinyl siding don’t funnel energy into their buildings. Solar panels do, reducing energy costs.

“It pays for itself over a period of time,” said Carey.

There’s another, more visceral, factor: the panels are beautiful.

Quite apart from the image of dull black squares plastered atop buildings like single-player chess boards, the panels come in a range of colour. The colour is the result not of paint or tint but of “atomic deposition” — a thin film of ingrained atoms that reflect light to create colour.

So the golden panels facing Adelaide Street should have an iridescent effect, changing hues as you walk around it.

“It makes you feel good,” said Maria Mendes, who heads the Innovation Centre project. “Sustainability is more than just energy efficiency and so on. You still want your environment to be a place you want to be.”

She said she thinks good esthetics can help encourage more builders to use green technology. That would result in greater overall efficiency, which, for Mendes, is the goal.

“One of the targets was to try to get to as near net zero as possible,” she said.

The panels’ high energy-transmission rates will help do that, she said. They’re also installing Power over Ethernet lighting, which can transmit both power and data through a single low-voltage cable, and a number of smaller energy-saving elements.

It took a team of architects, engineers, builders and electricians to get the project to this point, said Mendes.

Besides that, the European panels had to be inspected and improved by the Canadian Standards Association, the City of Winnipeg and Manitoba Hydro.

Lauren Parsons, a spokeswoman for Red River, said the college hopes to hold classes at the centre after it opens in the fall.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca