North Shore Community College’s Solar-Powered Health Professions Center Achieves Zero Net Energy

North Shore Community College, Danvers, Massachusetts, DiMella Shaffer, sustainable, LEED Gold, ZNEB, Zero Net Energy Building, energy efficient, solar power, geothermal, daylight, Health Professions, Student Services, Peter Shaffer, net zero

Robert Benson Photography

The $24 million budget seemed to be enough to design the building to achieve all programmatic needs and achieve at least LEED Gold requirements, but the team believed that additional funding would be necessary to achieve ZNE. Therefore, as a model project identified by the Governor’s Council on Sustainability, alternative funding sources were allocated by the State to add a photovoltaic design solution. DiMella Shaffer designed the building to be dramatic utilizing a truss structure supporting visually interesting 1088 photovoltaic solar panels on the building’s roof along with three solar panel canopies leading to the main entry. Working with the sustainable engineering companies of Buro Happold and Solar Design Associates the solar panels mounted on the trusses help to “celebrate” the importance of the on-site electrical generation and helped to secure the necessary energy savings through electrical generation.

+DiMella Shaffer

Via WAN

Photography by Robert Benson Photography