Dell Plants Solar Trees in Parking Lot
Nov 20th, 2009 | By Kevin Hayden | Category: Alternative Energy & Architecture
Two things are certain for the future: electric cars will become more popular and solar power will continue to grow as a viable source of energy. Because of this, the world is looking to industry leaders not only in the energy business, but to other major corporations that can have a major impact on the world’s power usage. Dell has stepped up to the plate and hopefully the Dell solar trees parking lot is a sign of greater things to come. The Dell solar parking lot by Envision Solar is a very innovative way that Dell has implemented solar powered lights and it is something that is immediately making an impact. The solar trees serve not only the purpose of gathering the suns energy as a viable energy source, but even provides shade over about 50 parking spaces as well! The lot was made viewable from the highway so Dell can let everyone know that solar power is the way to go.
[Hayden's Note: While this is great and all, where is that energy going and what is it being used for? Parking lot lighting at night? That would be pretty useful... but it seems as though they are doing this moreso as a publicity stunt rather than focusing on real alternative power initiatives. The article even points out how Dell made sure the solar panels were able to be seen from the highway. Seems like an awfully expensive way to light up your parking lot at night.]
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While Envision Solar touts its accomplishment, the true accolades belong to McBride Electric located in Austin (Round Rock) Texas. It was McBride Electric that was the general contractor for Dell Computers and chose to use Envision for the structural design of the “Trees”. They [McBride] utilized other contractors for various portions of the project on various trades. Though there were significant issues involved with the structural steel by Envision that caused McBride to make in-the-field repairs and changes to the assembly, McBride overcame those obstacles and produced a great landmark installation for Dell. This is obviously just the very first of many installation of both covered parking and most likely roof top mounted photovoltaic system that Dell will be installing. The credit belongs to those at the general contractor [McBride Electric] and Dell for an outstanding project. I watched the building of this outside of my window.