Power from the sun

Colt installed a Shadovoltaic solar shading system here that also generates photovoltaic electric power.
The system consists of an array of 351 translucent photovoltaic cells attached to movable louvres.

The system has a variety of different benefits, including:

- generation of electricity energy form renewable sources
- improvement of internal working conditions: the regulation of the amount of light entering into the building and the provision of a pleasant diffused light
- reduction of the cooling load by shading effects
- reduction of the heating load by the enhanced use of solar energy in winter

A Colt CCS 2000 control system ensures that the louvres are ideally positioned o capture the sun's energy so long as the sun shines directly on the south facade. It also ensures that none of the photovoltaic cells shade any of the other cells. This would otherwise lead to the reduced efficiency of the shaded cells.

The result is a pleasant balance between shading and natural daylight for the people inside the building.