Onyx Solar

Onyx Solar
Private Company
Founded January 1, 2009 (2009-01-01)
Founders Alvaro Beltran, Teodosio del Caño Key
Headquarters Ávila, Province of Ávila, Spain
Key people

Alvaro Beltran, CEO Diego Cuevas, Vice President, Teodosio del Caño, CTO

[1]
Website www.onyxsolar.com

Onyx Solar is a solar energy company with a global presence, which was founded in Ávila, Spain in 2009 by Alvaro Beltran and Teodosio del Caño. This company is a world leading manufactuer of Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV)[2] and is known for its combination of energy preservation optimization and photovoltaic energy production in its implementations.[3] They are actively cooperating with several universities, including Technical University of Madrid (UPM), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and University of Barcelona.[4]

Locations

Onyx Solar has two head office locations. Their main European office is located in Ávila, Spain and their North American office is located in New York City, United States. However, this company also has official distributors in Asia, Latin America, Australia and Africa.[5]

Products, services and technologies

BIPV Solutions

Onyx Solar offers a variety of colored photovoltaic glasses, which can be adapted to match any construction regulation. Onyx Solar manufactures both amorphous (a-Si) and crystalline (mono and poly-crystalline) photovoltaic glass, and has developed a walkable photovoltaic glass to be used as floor. This company advertises their glass as fully customizable, where any size, shape, color or semitransparency can be selected. This type of glass can easily be combined with any other construction material and can be fitted to smaller surfaces, including skylights, floors, and balconies. The structural properties of Onyx Solar’s photovoltaic glass are indistinguishable from those of conventional glass employed in construction.[6] This company has displayed an ability to customize all of their photovoltaic glass projects and describes themselves as a leading company in BIPV Turnkey projects.[7] In many international projects, they have been present from the first design phase until their final implementation. One of Onyx Solar's most famous projects is the largest integrated photovoltaic skylight in the United States.[8]

Research and Development

Onyx Solar has been involved with several solar energy research projects across the world. These projects include HERB, the retrofitting of residential buildings, in cooperation with the University of Nottingham [9] and PVSITES, a project aimed to reduce market barriers for the large scale implementation of BIPV.[10]

This company has also been involved with several solar energy research projects, any several of these projects have been in partnership with the European Commission. One example of an ongoing project with the European Commission is the ArtESun project, which seeks to bring new OPV (organic photovoltaic technologies) technologies to the thin-film PV market.[11]

Projects

In March 2016, Onyx Solar signaled its completion of the installation of photovolatic glass at the entrance of the American Airlines Arena by announcing that its project had received the LEED Gold certification, which is the highest certificate for building sustainability. This project utilized around 300 crystalline silicon PV glass units, which were deployed in 14 circular skylights. This implementation allows American Airlines Arena to produce 34,500 kWh of solar power per year for on-site consumption.[12]

In June 2016, Apple announced that it will be fitting its retail stores in San Francisco with walkable solar glass floors for the purpose of generating electricity. The integration of solar power directly into its retail stores has been used as an example of Apple's focus on renewable technology. These walkways will be constructed with Thin-film solar cell technology.[13]

Onyx Solar also documents all of its projects in its professional experience book. This book includes details about its involvement with the construction of the Dubai Frame and its ongoing (as of September 2016) work on the Tanjong Pagar building in Singapore (which will become the largest skyscraper in Singapore upon completion).[14]

Awards

On June 30, 2015, Glass Magazine named Onyx Solar 2015's "Most Innovative Glass Product" for its Low-E Photovoltaic Glass. The reasons behind this award include the ability of this product's layers to filter out 95% of ultraviolet radiation and 85% of infrared radiation as well as its solar heat coefficient (from 10 to 40%).[15] Onyx Solar claims that passive properties of its Low-E Photovoltaic Glass are at least on par with the most advanced conventional low-emissive glass.[16]

On July 7, 2016, Onyx Solar received the 2016 Global Frost & Sullivan Award for Technology Leadership from Frost & Sullivan for its excellence in continuously implementing new solutions which have performed well in the market. Frost & Sullivan has also cited the cost-effectiveness of Onyx Solar's implementations, due to the fact that they only add 2% to 5% to the final construction cost of a commercial building.

Several of the projects that Onyx Solar has participated in have also received awards. In 2014, the Novartis headquarters in the United States received the "Best Sustainable Project in New York" award from Engineering News-Record. In 2015, it received the "Best Project in Colorado" award from Engineering News-Record for its participation in the construction of the Science Pyramid in Denver Botanic Gardens.[17]

References

  1. ↑ "Onyx Solar". crunchbase.com. Retrieved 2016-09-09.
  2. ↑ "Onyx Solar Energy Profile". environmental-expert.com. Retrieved 2016-09-14.
  3. ↑ "Adoption of BIPV Rising owing to Government Incentives to Reduce Carbon Footprint". einnews.com. 2016-09-08. Retrieved 2016-09-09.
  4. ↑ "ONYX SOLAR". managenergy.net. Retrieved 2016-09-09.
  5. ↑ "Distributors". onyxsolar.com. Retrieved 2016-09-09.
  6. ↑ "Onyx Solar Photovoltaic Estimation and Return on Investment App". Glass Magazine. Retrieved 2016-09-14.
  7. ↑ "BIPV Solutions". onyxsolar.com. Retrieved 2016-09-09.
  8. ↑ "Turnkey BIHX Projects". onyxsolar.com. Retrieved 2016-09-09.
  9. ↑ "Euro Retrofit, Partners". euroretrofit.com. Retrieved 2016-09-09.
  10. ↑ "PV Sites Project Consortium Partners". pvsites.eu. Retrieved 2016-09-09.
  11. ↑ "European collaboration to develop highly efficient organic solar cells". Nanowerk. 2014-03-10. Retrieved 2016-09-26.
  12. ↑ "Miami Heat stadium gets Onyx Solar PV glass". SeeNews Renewables. 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-09-09.
  13. ↑ "Apple Stores, starting in San Francisco, will use new walk-able transparent solar glass". electrek.co. 2016-06-01. Retrieved 2016-09-09.
  14. ↑ "Professional Experience Book" (PDF). prnewswire.com. 2016-07-07. Retrieved 2016-09-09.
  15. ↑ "Glass Magazine Awards 2015: Redefining What's Possible". Glass Magazine. 2015-06-30. Retrieved 2016-09-09.
  16. ↑ "Photovoltaic Low-E Glass" (PDF). Onyx Solar. Retrieved 2016-09-14.
  17. ↑ "Frost & Sullivan Commends Onyx Solar's Innovative and Proven Building Integrated Photovoltaic Glass". prnewswire.com. 2016-07-07. Retrieved 2016-09-09.
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