The Advanced Energy Center is the second building on a newly created research and development campus, which is located immediately adjacent to the main Stony Brook campus in New York state. Completed in 2010, the building was designed by Flad Architects/ Structural Engineers and the URS Corporation headed up the distinguished construction team.
Consistent with the scientific mission of this facility, design and construction incorporate sustainable design principles and meet the top bracket of the US Green Building Council’s LEED certification programme. The Advanced Energy Center is currently one of a select few in the USA which meets with the stipulations necessary to obtain a LEED Platinum Award. This requires very high standards of energy reduction and resource policies.
Colt was asked to design a system of PV solar panels and because of the large spans between the upright supports a Shadovoltaic LS3 System was chosen for the project.
This is a fixed system so it was important to assess the angle of incidence to the sun to maximize the PV output. The output of the PV solar panel system is 11kW peak power which is then routed into the building’s main power supply. Both the architect and client are very happy with Colt's contribution to making this facility sustainable.
