Producing almost 473,000 kilowatt-hours Per Year

Last-Minute Photovoltaics: Prudent planning, plus a flexible approach to installation design, allows an architect to embrace an influx of PVs

July 2011 - When the Irvine, California–based architecture, design, and planning studio LPA began work on the Jerry Lewis High Desert San Bernardino County Government Center, the project team had no clue that the final product would include enough photovoltaics to produce almost 473,000 kilowatt-hours per year. The firm’s president Dan Heinfeld says, “The design intent was to always provide PV panels, whether now or in the future,” yet it was halfway through construction documentation when the now-eight-month-old government service center received Recovery Act funds to actually include them. Thanks to an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant as well as state incentives, there are photovoltaics encompassing 9,812 square feet of the 66,778-square-foot building's roof, and an additional 15,518 square feet of panels mounted on four independent canopy structures in its parking lot. They produce an estimated 61.9 percent of the facility’s needed electricity. read more>>>