Australia’s first office tower with a “solar skin” is expected to be built next year in a landmark moment for the construction industry and decarbonisation efforts.
The eight-storey building at 550-558 Spencer Street in West Melbourne will cost $40m and has been designed by the architecture firm Kennon on behalf of Dr Bella Freeman.
It will be covered by 1,182 solar panels the same thickness as a regular glass facade.
The system – called Skala – is manufactured by the German company Avancis and relies on a “thin-film PV module” sitting atop a network that channels the electricity generated into the building’s main power supply.
It is capable of producing 50 times the energy of the average rooftop photovoltaic solar array used in residential housing and will eliminate 70 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year.
When complete, the system will supply almost enough power to cover the building’s energy needs. With the addition of extra panels on the roof, the building is expected to have almost no ongoing power costs and will be carbon-neutral after a few years.
The design beats out a similar project by the superannuation firm Cbus, which has plans for a 49-storey office tower at 435 Bourke Street in the Melbourne CBD, expected to cost $1bn.
A solar panel facade will provide 20% of the building’s power when it is completed in 2026.
As construction relies on heavy machinery, transport and manufacturing processes powered by fossil fuels, many buildings start with a significant carbon footprint, referred to as “embedded carbon”.
The building sector accounts for 39% of CO2 emissions globally. According to the World Green Building Council, cement production contributes to 7% of all emissions globally, while steel production is responsible for between 7% and 9% of emissions.
The architect, Pete Kennon, said the Spencer Street building would pay off its carbon debt and “actually be carbon neutral”, without relying on offsets and other accounting measures.
“These things are possible and the fact a building can harness the sunlight from its own skin – it sounds like something you dreamed of, or you saw in a cartoon,” Kennon said.
Kennon, 34, began researching solar skin products in 2019 when he learned about the German company. Though it had been involved in projects in Europe, there had been no work to bring the product to Australia.
“Australia has one of the most, if not the most, strict building codes in the world,” he said. “And given all the recent history with flammable facades, it’s a – pardon the pun – very hot topic, so there’s a huge amount of due diligence that needs to go into proposing a product like this.”
The solar skin is undergoing a final round of testing before it can be approved, at which point the technology would be available for use in other buildings.
A decision of the building appeals board delivered on 7 April found construction of the building could go ahead and that “the use of PV panels on the building […] complies with performance requirements”.
“We did not invent the product but we’ve invented the way it can come to our country, and our country is such an enormous market because of the access to sunlight,” Kennon said.
“I can’t believe it hasn’t been done already.”