SolarSkin designs on solar panels transform an array on a tech-forward modern office building into a functional art installation
Solar installations on commercial buildings are more common these days as companies seek alternative energy solutions, but few are highly visible and even less make a statement with their presence alone.
When commercial real estate developer The Ackerberg Group broke ground on an Uptown Minneapolis project adjacent to its MoZaic West development, the team knew it wanted to continue the youthful, creative theme established by MoZaic West’s bold features, which included installed art and an outdoor art park.
On the new building, MoZaic East, Ackerberg complemented artistic features in the exterior and interior spaces by adding an innovative and unique solar array to the building’s facade.
St. Paul, Minn.-based solar company All Energy Solar designed and installed the system, featuring panels angled off the building’s south elevation at varying degrees, creating a ‘wave’ pattern. All Energy fabricated a custom bracket capable of holding panels in seven different positions, to create the unique, fluid, three-dimensional and abstract design. In a high-profile Uptown location, the eight-story office building announces its identity unmistakably: innovative, future-focused, and welcoming.
“At Ackerberg, we pride ourselves on creating inspired, sustainable urban environments,” said Mike Munson of Ackerberg Group. “MoZaic East was constructed with all things sustainable in mind. The building is LEED Gold certified, Transit station and Midtown Greenway adjacent, amenitized with onsite bike storage, green roofs, electric car charging stations — the list goes on. Adding solar was the perfect complement.”
“Traditional solar projects are likely found in a rural field or on large, flat building roofs; but this solar project is anything but traditional,” said Munson. “Contrary to tradition, we instead envisioned an artful, colorful solar demonstration on MoZaic East’s southern façade. With grant funds for a highly visible and innovative solar strategy, and a creative partner in All Energy we were able to bring this vision to life.”
“By introducing the SolarSkin product, an aesthetic solar panel overlay founded at MIT, we were able gradient purples and greens which play off the color changing metal tones of the building,” said Munson.
“Mounting the panels in a “fluid” wave-like form further transformed what was otherwise traditional solar equipment into a Building-Integrated Photovoltaic system creating a highly visible, innovative solar experience in the heart of Uptown,” said Munson.
“We are excited to be a trailblazer in creative solar technology in the Twin Cities and U.S. as a whole and hope this solar project encourages others to think out-of-the-box on environmentally sustainable projects,” he added.
“To turn the array into a functional art installation required real collaboration between designers, manufacturers, installers, architects, and the developer,” says Michael Thalhimer of All Energy Solar. Ackerberg and All Energy originally collaborated on the vision for the project after receiving a renewable energy grant from the Metropolitan Council intended to support a visual, innovative solar installation within the city limits. With the grant in place, the extended team took on the challenge to develop a solar array that provided a visible representation demonstrating renewable energy in action.
Searching for design ways to adjust traditional solar aesthetics to enhance MoZaic East, All Energy Solar introduced Ackerberg to a new product, SolarSkin from Boston-based Sistine Solar. This patented translucent film can be imprinted with graphics and adhered to solar panels, but is transparent enough to allow the sun’s rays to produce power.
“This was an exciting and creative project that Sistine Solar was proud to be a core part of,” said Senthil Balasubramanian, CEO & Founder, Sistine Solar. “All Energy Solar approached us with the ask of fully customizable aesthetics designed to last several years, maintain high efficiency of the solar array, and seamlessly integrate onto their preferred choice of panels. As the world’s only solar technology that is 100% customizable in color and graphics, SolarSkin checked all those boxes.”
“Our team of artists and engineers worked closely with Alliiance to create several novel aesthetic concepts, used our proprietary algorithms to digitally simulate and narrow down the best candidates, and fabricated various color samples for final selection,” said Balasubramanian. “The final design involved 24 distinct and different patterns of various hues thoughtfully dispersed and repeated across the facade surface. The challenge of making the overall color gradient work harmoniously with the dichroic property of the building material was an especially complex one. We are proud that SolarSkin was able to solve all these challenges in record time and create a first-of-its-kind installation in the world. As we like to say, design can make solar capture the world’s imagination and this project is a powerful example of that.”
MoZaic East architect Ernesto Ruiz-Garcia of Minneapolis architecture and design firm Alliiance collaborated with All Energy on the construction plan and with the Sistine Solar design team on graphic designs for the films. The end result is an abstract wave motif that reflects the colors and design elements of the building, offering a perfect counterpoint to the Midtown Greenway on the building’s north side.
“Using solar panels in a prominent building elevation is a significant aesthetic challenge—a flat installation of panels did not work with the overall building design,” said architect Ernesto Ruiz-Garcia of Alliiance. “So we challenged All Energy Solar to come up with a custom mounting system. Their design gave us the flexibility to angle and rotate the panels along two different axes, turning them into a three-dimensional element that adds depth and interest to the elevation.
“The use of custom graphics on the panels, and the coordination between the graphics and the angling of the panels, was also important,” said Ruiz-Garcia. “All Energy Solar showed great initiative in facilitating many color samples and mockups, ensuring that the project met the design intent while also staying on schedule. This was an ambitious installation done in a very compressed schedule, and they did a great job balancing these priorities.”
