Comments on: SOLAR ARK: World’s Most Stunning Solar Building

By: High Speed Rail Station Has World's Largest Building Integrated PV System | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:16:32 +0000

[...] largest stand alone integrated photovoltaic project was pumping out power into the grid. The building integrated PV system is located on the roof of the recently completed Hongqiao Rail Station in Shanghai. With 20,000 [...]

By: No B.S.

No B.S. — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:04:02 +0000

Bravo ! I\\\’m not any kind of an expert on solar power. What truly impresses me though is this companys integrity. To have the humility and guts to make this huge symbolic apology (which you can bet cost a lot of $$$$$$$) is truly outstanding in todays world and serves as a wonderful example to all corporations of the responsibility to customers that all businesses should have. They screwed up, admitted it, apologized for all the world to see, and promised to try harder so this would never happen again. Bravo Sanyo. Well done.

By: nightpie

nightpie — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:56:14 +0000

From looking at the pictures, it would seem Sanyo is much more interested in creating a billboard instead of generating energy. The solar panels appear far too vertical to be at the ideal angle for catching the sun\’s direct rays. Panels placed vertically on the south side of buildings (in the northern hemisphere) see a reduction in their capacity of 20-30%. It looks like a similar reduction might be appropriate for the ark. This says nothing of the fact that the entire \”building\” may not be sited correctly to face south. Even if it is, only one side can face south meaning the opposite side\’s generation will be significantly limited.

By: Inhabitat » Civil Court for Madrid from Zaha Hadid

Inhabitat » Civil Court for Madrid from Zaha Hadid — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 08:44:31 +0000

[...] and control through this intelligent façade. On the roof, these metal panels will include integrated photovoltaic [...]

By: DailyDigital » Blog Archive » Solar Ark

DailyDigital » Blog Archive » Solar Ark — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 19:06:28 +0000

[...] Link [...]

By: Lakshminarayanan

Lakshminarayanan — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:09:52 +0000

wow……. great thinking
it is definitely converting lemon into lemonade

By: kctx

kctx — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 10:04:26 +0000

The sign’s in English. hmm. Nice lines but the thing could be more functional.

By: Andy

Andy — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 05:58:27 +0000

What a complete and utter eyesore.

By: bob roberts

bob roberts — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 02:50:06 +0000

i swear this thing looks like the oscar-meyer wiener mobile

By: Stephen

Stephen — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 21:37:13 +0000

mY HATS OFF TO ALL THOSE WHO FIGURE OUT SOLUTION FOR OTHER PEOPLE TRASH AND MAKE POWER. THANK GOD THAT YOU HAVE STAYED TRUE TO BEING TRUE PROBLEM SOLVERS

It to bad that the U.S. Goverment and the big companies and oil companies do not have for sight long term vision. Because the only thing they see is how they can screw americans and so many other courtries, and take more of their money and put it in our pockets.
But to all of us who keep trying to make new things and finding solution for the future, but as we seen if the goverment or big companies do not get their cut of the pie.
then they spend large bucks to stomp it out. Or tell us via media it cost to much that’s the big lie the general publie suck up and believe.because the guy you watch on TV are just prety/hansome dummies reading from the monitor or and ear piece sound like the President of the USA

REMEMBER WHEN PEOPLE WORK TOGEHTER FOR THE BETTERMENT OF ALL
AND NOW IT’S JUST ME ME ME ME ME ME

By: sinbad

sinbad — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 21:32:17 +0000

I personally am quite impressed by the “building.” Whatever you want to title it, doesn’t matter, I think they have put the product to good use. If anything, its a good start.

By: Logan Antill

Logan Antill — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 21:27:21 +0000

LVHRD’s fourth Architects Duel on January 29th will have two teams of architects designing structures for a post-oil world in the Alaskan Wilderness. Check it out if you’ll be in the city.

http://www.lvhrd.org/index.php/category/events/archdl4

Past ARCH DLs have been sick.

By: David Harvey

David Harvey — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 23:09:09 +0000

Wow! it’s sure got a heap more panels than my neighbor’s place in southern Queensland, but then Sanyo had a much larger budget.

I do admire the shape of their structure, however. They could almost make it into one of those Times Square (or Picadilly Circus) type moving light scrolling news billboards… I guess it would have enough power to run such a thing.

Very impressive indeed and a great publicity stunt for Sanyo. And extra points for making use of castoffs from the reject pile, too. Maybe they’d let some of us scrounge for cheap pv panels as well?

By: Richie

Richie — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:08:33 +0000

In the photos… you can se that apparently there is no contiguous rear wall, because the sky is visible ! So This appears to be a building/sculpture, or a power generating station that includes a small ‘building’ section. I like the overall look and design. I guess the curved bottom area was too challenging to have as a floor ? Also… windows would have spoiled the look, etc. Overall… I see it as ‘modern sculpture’ that has a small building(the Museum) beneath it (Night time photo shows this). It’s a great ‘Billboard’ too !

By: Ted

Ted — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 12:10:46 +0000

Whoa…your a little late on this…
The arc has been up and generating since early 2000 with a museum opened in 2005 for the expo.

By: Fahmishah

Fahmishah — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 10:30:32 +0000

wow this is big.

By: edna

edna — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 09:53:04 +0000

“one of the best examples of building integrated PV design to date”

Except it isn’t really building integrated is it? More like a solar power station with a small building somewhere nearby.

By: meti

meti — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 09:30:42 +0000

It reminds me of giant phallic object. Uh, I just mean I don’t think it is that pretty.

By: Dan Dixon

Dan Dixon — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 09:04:13 +0000

I may have totally converted units/time wrong:

The article says this:
“The company wanted to make the largest PV system in the world, a 3.4 MW installation to mark its 50th anniversary.”

If the Ark, with its defective cells, can produce 3.4 MW you would need 147 Arks to equal the power of 1 ‘average’ power plant.

If the maximum system power = 630 kW (which is 0.6 MW) you would need 794 Arks to equal 1 average plant.
http://us.sanyo.com/aboutsanyo/solarark_facts.cfm

By: Dan Dixon

Dan Dixon — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 08:47:52 +0000

Here’s info on its power output:

Annual electrical output = Approx. 530 MWh
http://www.solar-ark.com/english/about/spec.html

Which seems to be an average size Fossil Fuel Power Plant. 500 MW is numerously cited here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_fuel_power_plant

Or 600 MW for a Russian Nuclear Power Plant
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_plant

Compare that to the world’s largest power plants that produce over 10,000 MW
http://www.industcards.com/top-100-pt-1.htm