Namaste Solar attaches vertical PV array to office building with S-5! mounts

Vaisala, a Finnish weather, environmental and industrial measurement product supplier, embarked to erect a cutting-edge U.S. headquarters in Louisville, Colorado, that would showcase sustainability — and S-5! solar attachments helped the company achieve its goals.

The project would construct a new building seamlessly integrated with the existing one, leading to an indoor-outdoor campus. Inspired by the minimalist design of its Scandinavian headquarters, the new structure embodies modernity while prioritizing eco-consciousness. Notably, the project achieves net-zero energy through a fusion of sustainable design features. Among these are a state-of-the-art, 492-panel rooftop solar array, a VRF HVAC mechanical system and a vertical, double-skin curtain wall facade, all included to minimize energy consumption.

The building incorporates a pre-existing 101-kW tilted solar array on the lower south building’s TPO roof, the S-5-U Mini/Unirac rail-based solar racking system on the upper standing seam metal roof and a vertical façade standing seam wall-mounted array secured in place using the S-5! PVKIT rail-less solar mounting solution. Together, the metal rooftop solar systems produce 228 kW.

The owner desired a sleek-looking, low-profile system that would complement the look of the roof the exterior of the building. The main challenge was to provide an aesthetically pleasing, vertically mounted solar PV array on the existing standing seam façade wall, including engineering sign-off on the solution. A conventional, heavy rail-mounted system was deemed unsuitable for the façade wall.

The façade mounted array not only needed to math the building aesthetically and it also needed to withstand tremendous wind loads, up to about 145 mph wind speeds.

“When we started the façade-mounted portion of this project, we worked through our options and knowing aesthetics were a top priority for the customer, the PVKIT solution was a natural choice,” said Briana Morris, commercial principal engineer at Namaste Solar. “We had yet to dip our toes into rail-less solutions on the commercial side as we were concerned about wire management for the field. With a little pre-planning, before placing modules, it turned out to be a non-issue. Our crews loved installing this system and said they would be perfectly happy installing more projects just like this.”

By directly attaching the PV to the seams of the façade wall, S-5! mounts provided the necessary attachment strength to secure the array the structure. The clamps act as wind clamps, often referred to as “External Seam Clamps,” measurably increasing the roof’s wind uplift resistance capacity.

“Considering the uncommon forces being exerted on racking for a vertical array, having clamps with two set screws certainly helped alleviate concerns about clamps rotating under load,” said Ash Bowersock, Namaste Solar commercial technical designer. “The low profile of the S-5! PVKIT really helped with the wind loading and of course aesthetics.”

Over time, the solar system will offset 69% of the building’s electrical consumption. The project has achieved an Energy Use Intensity rating of 28, which measures a building’s energy performance, making it one of Colorado’s most sustainable office buildings.

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