Formerly known as the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD), Metro Vancouver provides drinking water, sewerage, drainage, and solid waste management to 22 municipalities, one electoral area, and one treaty First Nation.
Prism investigated the feasibility of installing building integrated photo voltaic (BIPV) cells on the prior GVRD head office building in Burnaby. The investigation included research on multiple products including Tandem Junction Amorphous Silicon (a-Si) and Crystalline modules.
Analyses were also conducted to assess the performance of BIPV cells on various aspects of the building’s envelope. While at the time the technology proved cost prohibitive for the organization, the performance of such systems is continuously improving and may at some point be viable for Metro Vancouver.