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Three round buildings with rounded angular sloping roofs in a flat valley buildings reflected in a small body of water; google bay view
Google Bay View

Knitting Beauty, Innovation, and Sustainability

Owner

Google

Client

Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions

General Contractor

Whiting-Turner

Project Location

Mountain View, CA

Google Bay View takes green building and workspace design to futuristic levels. On the forefront of design innovation, this 1.1 million-square-foot-campus features a first-of-its-kind solar design solution equipped with 50,000 silver solar panels on three rooftops.

The prismatic nature of the glass panels improves output by trapping light that would normally escape from traditional flat solar panels. The texture also gives the panels a distinct arrangement and shimmer, earning the name “dragonscale.” An innovative racking design on the curved roof surfaces gives the buildings a sense of movement and beauty.

 

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Optimal PV Layout Design and Infrastructure

DLR Group provided racking design and electrical pathway design, and coordination services for the four-megawatt rooftop solar system through collaboration with Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions and in collaboration with the overall building design team. Through advanced parametric modeling and clash detection, a well-crafted rooftop solar design was born. The design considered environmental conditions including thermal expansion, seamless integration with other complex building systems, and ease of maintenance. The result is an optimal PV layout that yields the highest possible coverage of surface area on the complex roof geometry. Seismic bracing and support design considerations for PV electrical conduit infrastructure were also key. Routing intricacies through a substantial number of tightly fitting conduits up cruciform columns was like threading a needle. This involved going through the building structure, weaving to pass through the façade, above the roof, and below the modules.

Photo by Iwan Baan

Seismic bracing and support design considerations for PV electrical conduit infrastructure were key. Photo by Iwan Baan.

The photovoltaic layout yields the highest possible coverage of surface area on the complex roof geometry. Photo by Iwan Baan.

The prismatic nature of the glass panels improves output by trapping light that would normally escape from traditional flat solar panels. Photo by Iwan Baan.

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Learn more at goo.gle/bayviewtogether. 

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