Fiberglass Shines Bright Over Parking Lots
Image Credit: Strongwell Corporation
It’s traditional for solar farms to be built on acres of undeveloped land. This kind of development and buildout, however, competes with demand for land, with other competition including preserving farmland, biodiversity, and building housing developments, as well as other ongoing initiatives to generate energy.
An increasing number of companies and communities are adopting new ways to generate renewable energy, which has increased land acquisition and thus made undeveloped land an ever scarcer resource.
To overcome this, urban developers and city planning departments have thus taken an unorthodox but very utilitarian approach that combines urban design with pragmatic engineering.
A large retailer in New Jersey contacted Northstar Technologies Group about a parking canopy system that captures solar energy.
Northstar’s SOLARGLAS product line is a high-performing composite racking system specifically for photovoltaic panels. The system is a 100 % FRP structure dedicated to the solar energy market, and can be built for canopies, ground mounts, or as a roof mount.
Technical Data. Source: Strongwell Corporation
| . |
. |
| Product: |
Solar Parking Canopy System |
| Process: |
Pultrusion, Fabrication |
| Materials & Sizes: |
EXTREN® Structural Shapes:
- Channel, square tube, angle, plate
|
| For: |
Northstar Technologies Group, Inc. |
| User: |
A retailer's corporate office in New Jersey |
This project used Strongwell products to generate a dual-purpose solar car canopy that provides shade for vehicles while harnessing solar power and significantly increasing the value of the developer’s real estate asset. Thanks to FRP's low electrical conductivity, such structures are easy to install and ground.
Strongwell’s EXTREN® channels, square tubes, angles, and plates became the structural components for columns, trusses, and purlins in this all-composite construction. The parts were fabricated, flat-shipped, and quickly assembled before being delivered and installed in New Jersey within four months.
As FRP is resistant to both rot and corrosion, this structure is built to withstand a minimum of 25 years and can sustain 130-mph wind loads alongside 60 psf snow loads over its service lifespan.
Image Credit: Strongwell Corporation
Strongwell and Northstar Technologies Group received strong approval from project partners and end users. Through this project and others, Strongwell’s fiberglass structural parts have stood the test of time thanks to their durability, delivery support, engineering resources, and dependable installations.
Northstar Technologies Group is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in renewable technology. Together with Strongwell, their FRP-based solutions deliver unparalleled strength, resilience, and swift deployment, making it possible for architects, developers, and utilities to fashion systems that are both smarter and more sustainable.
From solar and structural applications to defense and disaster-resilient housing, Northstar is building the future.
This information has been sourced, reviewed, and adapted from materials provided by Strongwell Corporation.
For more information on this source, please visit Strongwell Corporation.