At 550-558 Spencer Street in West Melbourne, Australia, an eight-story building will be the country’s first office tower with a “solar skin,” marking a watershed moment for the construction industry.

The $40-million office tower will be outfitted with 1,182 solar panels the thickness of a regular glass facade.

And when complete, the array will provide enough power to meet practically all of the building’s energy needs, with almost no ongoing power costs. The building will also be carbon-neutral in a few years, serving as a shining example of the prospects for decarbonizing the construction industry.

Crema Constructions is currently building the project, designed by Melbourne-based architect Pete Kennon and scheduled to open in mid-2023. The brilliant Skala solar-skin system is manufactured by the German company Avancis.

Skala uses a “thin-film PV module” atop a network that transfers the electricity generated into the building’s main power supply. According to The Guardian, it can generate 50 times the energy of a typical rooftop photovoltaic solar array used in residential homes.

Once completed, the system will provide nearly enough power to meet the whole building’s energy needs while saving 77 tons of CO2 each year. And with the addition of additional roof panels, the solar-skin building is planned to have nearly no ongoing power expenditures and will be carbon-neutral in a few years.

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