Solar powered “PV Frisbee” powers a Taiwanese school

As an initiative to deal with drastic climatic changes, the Taipei European School’s (TES) Swire European Primary Campus inaugurated its first solar powered roof above the play ground on November 17th, 2009. Owing to its shape, the roof consisting of disc-like photovoltaic (PV) modules has been aptly named as the “PV Frisbee”. Twenty one such roofs have also been installed across various schools in other Asian locations as well as in Europe, Africa, South America and Australia. Coordinated and designed by Abakus Solar AG a technology company was founded in Germany but has been operating in Taiwan since 2006, the project has been co-financed by the German Energy Agency and the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi). Powered by mainly Germany-based organizations, this solar roof project forms a part of the “Solar Roofs Program for Foreign Market Development” initiative of the German government.

Costing $139,664.80, the project took around three months to complete. The disk structure was designed by Taiwanese architect Kao Ying-Chao and it compliments not only the play ground where it is placed but also the school on the whole. Created using sophisticated technology, this roof is made of 32PV 210W modules with an output of 6.72kWp. It has the capacity to generate around 6,230 kilowatt hours of electricity per year, reducing overall carbon dioxide emissions by over 3.95 tons.
[SolarFeeds]