Solar FlexRacks Used for Sustainable Landscapes Project at Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh

This facility is part of an overall initiative at Phipps that will simultaneously meet or exceed the following three standards of sustainable construction: the International Living Future Institute's Living Building Challenge; the US Green Building Council's highest level of certification, LEED Platinum; and the four-star certification of the SITES landscape rating system, also called the Sustainable Sites Initiative.

Finding a rack mounting solution that is compliant with all of these standards is challenging, but SolarWorld authorized installer Energy Independent Solutions found success when they turned to Solar FlexRack. The company erected 5 ground-mount and 66 roof-mount SolarFlex Rack units to hold 250W Sunmodule solar panels. Combined with energy efficiencies, solar hot water, natural light capture and geothermal heating and cooling, the project is designed to help free the centre from reliance on off-site energy.

According to Joe Morinville of Energy Independent Solutions, “We selected the Solar Flexrack for our Phipps Conservatory Center for Sustainable Landscapes project in Pittsburgh and are very happy with the results. The racking is well designed, has a clean look when completed and was delivered on time. 

“As promised, it was a big labor saver,” Morinville continues. “This project was a ‘Living Building Challenge’ which is a difficult standard to meet. The Solar FlexRack team was great to work with, and made several design changes to comply with the program requirements. We are very happy we selected Solar Flexrack, and we intend to use them for future projects.”

 Solar FlexRack is the world’s most innovative photovoltaic mounting solution. While its nearest competitor touts an installation time of over 30 minutes with a six-man crew, a Solar FlexRack can be installed by a three-man crew in five minutes or less. 

This makes significantly accelerated construction times and dramatic savings on labor costs possible for any solar installation — an estimated $500,000+ savings per 10MW project. Thus, when the Solar FlexRack is specified in an RFP, the total bid could be as much as 40 percent lower for construction.