A collection of eye-catching stained glass installations by a Toronto artist is generating solar power in three provinces, and one of them is in the process of being hooked up to the Saskatchewan--Canada's grid.
"Lux Gloria" by Sarah Hall, at the Cathedral of the Holy Family in Saskatoon, is currently being connected to Saskatoon Light & Power's electrical distribution network. The artwork, which consists of solar panels embedded in brightly coloured, hand-painted art glass, had just been re installed and upgraded after breaking and falling into the church last year. Once it is connected, the cathedral will be able to use the solar power produced by the art installation to offset its own power consumption from the regular grid.
These solar panels are expected to produce about 2,500 kilowatt hours annually or about a third to a quarter of the 8,000 to 10,000 kilowatt hours consumed by a typical home in Saskatoon each year. All of this solar power is expected to be used by the cathedral itself, although there may be times when the church system feeds power back into the grid. This installation will become Saskatchewan's first building-integrated photovoltaic system (BIPV), where solar panels are embedded directly into walls, windows or other parts of a building's main structure.
It's a trend that is expected to grow in the future as the traditional practice of mounting solar panels on rooftops isn't practical for many city buildings, including some churches. Because the solar cells aren't transparent, a high-tech "dichroic" glass is added to the back of the cells in some cases to make them colourful and reflective. "Waterglass" also incorporates heat-mirror glass in order to reduce heat leakage into and out of the building. New solar technologies for windows that would allow them to be transparent and generate solar energy, such as spray-on photovoltaic coatings, are currently under development for use in building-integrated photovoltaics.
Image and News Source: CBC News
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