550 Spencer building with solar facade will produce more electricity than it requires

An ambitious new development in Melbourne has been announced by Australian firm Kennon. The eight-story office building, dubbed 550 Spencer, will generate more power than it consumes thanks to a cutting-edge solar facade consisting of 1,182 solar panels.

To make things clear, 550 Spencer's design isn't the same as Copenhagen International School's in that it doesn't utilize standard solar panels to affix to the outside of a building. Its solar facade will appear to be glass, but it will harvest energy from the Sun with 1,182 integrated solar panels. Solar facades aren't usual, and Kennon said the project would be the first in Australia with a solar facade. To achieve it, German firm Avancis was hired because no similar products were available in Australia.

"At the time I had been researching glazing products in operation in Europe that embody photovoltaic cells within a facade glass screen that didn't look like the typical and ugly solar panels you see on rooftops," Kennon added.

"We started discussions with a number of manufacturers soon learning they didn't have a presence in Australia. We designed a building facade with the product and I pitched the concept to the client. We partnered with a local glass distributor George Fethers & Co and flew the executives of the product out from Germany to meet with us. We mapped the solar performance from different facade alterations optimizing the electricity production."

There was yet another issue: the solar facade technology had not been registered in Australia. Kennon didn't want to be discouraged, so he sent over 40 panels across. The firm constructed a replica of the facade and then set it on fire to test its performance, filming the process carefully with Red Fire Engineers' assistance. With fire evidence ready-made, construction got back under way.

The solar facade system, once completed, will produce 142 kWp while consuming only 12.5kWh per day, which compares to around 3 - 6 kWp on a typical solar panel setup for a house. The solar panels on the tower's roof, according to Kennon, will be enough to produce more electricity than the structure consumes and, furthermore, 70 tonnes (78.4 US tons) of carbon dioxide each year will be eliminates. Another advantage is that installation all of the solar panels on the façade frees up space for office workers to enjoy in the rooftop garden. 550 Spencer is expected to be finished in mid-2023.