S-5! kept environment in mind with new solar-powered corporate headquarters

With native timber and moss covered rocks on the outside, the building has energy efficiency features on the inside and is topped with a 53 kW solar array mounted on its metal roof.

November 17, 2023 Anne Fischer

Image: S-5!

S-5!, a specialist in roofing attachments for the solar industry, completed a 53 kW solar installation on its new corporate headquarters in Colorado.

The rooftop installation will provide 84 MWh annually and cover up to 75% of the facility’s power, the company reports.

S-5! hired Spear Commercial & Industrial from Texas to handle the solar installation, which includes 135 Trina Vertex S 395 W solar modules with Enphase IQ8 microinverters. The modules are mounted directly on the metal roof using the company’s own PVKIT for attachment. PVKIT enables solar modules to be mounted on metal roofs without the need for a rail system.

Mark Gies, director of product management told pv magazine USA that the company does plan to add battery backup in the future. “The weather in Colorado Springs is volatile especially in the winter,” said Gies. “We want to utilize the benefits of a battery backup as well as leveraging any future economics of ‘time of use’ shifting.”

The two-story office building, designed by PWN Architects and Planners of Denver, Colorado, was built with the environment in mind and makes use of native timber and natural moss rock, along with Corten steel, which provides a rustic appearance to the building exterior. The roof, installed by Weathercraft from Colorado Springs is a standing seam, Galvalume Drexel Metals 24-gauge supported by hand-peeled log trusses.

While the finished project is “now an office that I could only dream of,” said Rob Haddock, CEO and founder of S-5!, the road to completion was rocky at times. After ten years of searching, Haddock said he found land that had been burned in the Black Forest Fire of 2013. An architect began the plans, but they ran into challenges from formal rezoning, to fire protection, to escalating costs during COVID, to workforce challenges, and more. Despite the challenges, the corporate headquarters is finished and running on solar.

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