Inovateus Solar, a leader in the solar power industry, is the solar general contractor for the first potentially LEED Platinum certified transportation building in the nation – a new operations, administration and maintenance facility for TRANSPO in South Bend, Indiana. Inovateus is supplying Uni-Solar photovoltaic roofing material for the project. Roof installation will begin in the spring.
“It’s a 100kw Uni-Solar installation,” said Inovateus Project Manager J.P. von Rahl. “It will be the largest in the state of Indiana when it’s complete.” Uni-Solar thin cell panels will cover 17,000 square feet on the roof of the building that replaces a 19th-century facility and prepares TRANSPO to introduce alternative-fueled buses next year. The solar energy source is an important component for the project’s potential LEED Platinum certification that TRANSPO is pursuing.
“The photovoltaic or solar panels are an integral part of that,” said John Callan, project manager for general contractor, The Robert Henry Corporation. “The design team has put together a very attractive structure. It’s going to be a lot more functional.”
Callan, in his first experience with photovoltaic material, said the Uni-Solar material is surprisingly easy to manage. “That’s the beauty of their particular system,” he said. “It’s very easily incorporated after the roof membrane is installed. It seems to me that it would be very suitable for retrofit situations.”
“The Uni-Solar roofing requires no special preparation for installation,” said Greg Dudeck of Dudeck Roofing & Sheet Metal. “It’s just a normal roof,” he said. “It’s a big roof – 1,800 squares – but for us it’s just a normal installation. It’s a big, flat, wide open area.”
Chris Hendricks of Bancroft Electric, the electrical contractor responsible for wiring the equipment, was also impressed with the material. “For the voltage, I think it is very innovative,” said Hendricks, who has been an electrician for 25 years. “It’s a flexible mat of photocells. I think it’s a nifty system. Until they increased the efficiency of the cells, it was never practical in this area. The efficiency in this climate is greatly improved.”
“It’s very exciting for Inovateus Solar to have a large solar project in our back yard,” said T.J. Kanczuzewski, executive vice president of Inovateus Solar. “So often, we have to go to the East Coast or the West Coast to do our solar projects. It’s an honor to be a part of Indiana’s largest rooftop solar installation.”
Inovateus Solar is the solar general contractor for the first potentially LEED Platinum certified transportation building in the United States and is a wholesale distributor of United Solar Ovonic and an integrator of the UNI-SOLAR® thin-film flexible solar laminates. More information can be found at www.inovateussolar.com
