New Google Headquarters Uses Dragonscale Solar Panels which Catch Sunlight from all of the Angles

Being the largest geothermal installation in North America, these Google campus buildings feature solar roofs boasting a unique, textured coating that collects the solar rays.

This state-of-the-art campus also boasts plenty of other creative, energy-saving aspects.

Named the Dragonscale, this building is already catching worldwide attention. 

This 1.1 million square foot Google campus spreads on 43 acre Bay View campus in California and it features so much more than a striking name.

It features 50,000 photovoltaic panels which form the dragonscale solar skin. 

This roof has specialized textured prismatic glass which is coated to collect light and generate around 40 percent of all the heating needs of the building. Interestingly, this location doesn’t use any natural gas for heating.

First Building of the Tech Company Built from Scratch

This is the first-ever complex by Google that’s developed by them from scratch. All of the previous ones were existing. 

The location next door to the Ames Research Center by NASA in Mountain View became the largest structure that undertook the Living Building Challenge. This challenge follows the sustainable performance of a building during the phases of construction and use.

The roof features the most attractive part of this search for an eco-friendly building. 

The texture which provides that function also creates a one-of-a-kind sparkle in the panels which also inspired the unusual name “dragonscale”, according to Asim Tahir, the district and renewable energy head of Google. 

Tahir added that these panels, in combination with the pavilion-like lines on the roof enable the collection of the sun rays from all possible angles.

This differs from flat roofs which produce the most power at the same time during the day; however, this dragonscale roof creates continuous power throughout a prolonged amount of hours in the daylight. 

The panels spread over more than a million square feet and combined with the nearby wind power, they generate 90 percent of renewable energy and they aim to reach 100 percent.

Google’s New Mountain View Building Boasts Other Impressive Eco-Friendly Features

This Google building has other impressive features like natural daylight and views of the outdoors from every desk and automated window shades that open and close throughout the day.

Moreover, the ventilation system uses 100 percent of the outside air than the usual 30 percent. The building is made entirely of materials that are free of toxins and non-potable water that’s recycled from water collected on site.

The geothermal pile system will heat and cool the campus through the geo-exchange field that’s included in the structural system to lower the water needed for cooling by 90 percent or five million gallons annually. 

This is said to be the largest geothermal installation in North America. The company also worked to bring the outside nature indoors using natural lighting and landscaping and this is why the site has 17.3 acres of natural area, including rehabilitated Bay Area wetlands.

Five years after breaking ground, the company is welcoming employees onto the location that has two office buildings, one center for events, a hotel that will house temporary workers, and of course, a dragonscale skin sparkling in the sun.

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