In a nutshell
The facade renovation of the historical building Klockstapeln, literally ‘clocktower’, in Gävle (Sweden), is the second project in the Nordics for Kameleon Solar, after the tremendous success of the Ticon Eiendom solar facade in Drammen (Norway). The colored solar panels provide energy production, and the windows integrated with the solar facade contribute to energy saving. As a result, the building is now an energy-efficient office building and looks more beautiful than ever.
Klockstapeln exemplifies Kameleon Solar’s expertise in color-matching technology and the customized design and production of colored solar panels.
Details
Background
The building hosts the social services (socialtjänst) of the municipality of Gävle, which play a crucial role in the Gävleborg County community. The real estate that owns Klockstapeln wanted to make the original building more sustainable, improving indoor climate and energy efficiency by using an aesthetic PV solution for the facade. To do so, they used ColorBlast® solar panels manufactured by Kameleon Solar and ConverLight® Energy glass from ChromoGenics.
Customized ColorBlast® solar facade
This project demonstrates Kameleon Solar’s flexibility and adaptation to the architect’s design needs, amounting to 63 different shapes and sizes and 14 non-rectangular shapes out of 135 colored solar panels in total. Furthermore, all the customized solar panels fit perfectly and blend in with the building, matching the color NCS 56500-n that corresponds to our KSW 2635 in our vast color database.
The facade renovation affected the upper part of the building, with the colored solar facade of a modern building built on a more ancient one. The PV panels match the color of the upper edges of the older building; the two parts blend together, resulting in an aesthetic facade solution.
This beautiful customized solar facade is the result of the excellent precision job of Kameleon Solar and its partners, which started with the measuring, continued in the drawing and manufacturing of PV panels and concluded with the mounting. Kameleon Solar delivered the ColorBlast® solar panels on time, working under pressure and showing the customary commitment and reliability. We also advised not to connect the entire building to the same inverter; we recommended having at least two separate inverters to optimize storage.
The colored solar panels are perfectly integrated with the windows frames in a “curtain wall” facade. A curtain wall is an outer covering of a building in which the exterior walls are non-structural, utilized only to keep the weather out and the occupants inside.
ConverLight® Energy from ChromoGenics
The facade renovation turned Klockstapeln into a more sustainable building because the colored PV panels produce renewable solar energy.
In addition, ChromoGenics provided their smart glass for the windows, a type of electrochromic glass that changes from transparent to translucent and vice versa. Therefore, when it’s sunny and hot outside, a smart layer in the windows helps keep the temperature cooler inside, so it’s a comfortable working environment, and the energy for the air conditioning can be saved.