The
Regional Enterprise Tower has become the first Downtown building to use solar panels to generate power.
The installation of 56 roof-top solar panels last week was the final piece of the yearlong, $3.1 million project to retrofit the building to bring it up to current standards and make it more energy-efficient. The solar field generates enough energy to power the 31st floor. Other updates include the installation of energy-efficient lighting and water-saving bathroom fixtures, improvements to the heating and ventilation systems, and replacing parts on each of the building's 2,100 windows.
Matt Pavlosky with the building's owner, Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC), says SPC should see a return on the investment in a relatively short time--over the next 15 years, the green improvements should save SPC about $5.2 million.
The 31-story aluminum skyscraper was built in 1953 on Sixth Avenue, Downtown. Formerly the Alcoa world headquarters, the Regional Enterprise Tower is now home to many high-profile nonprofits, including the Chamber of Commerce and Visit Pittsburgh, and smaller groups, like Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Program (PUMP) and Sustainable Pittsburgh.
"When we took the building over, the idea was to create an original space for collaboration that would demonstrate how the region could work together," says Pavlosky with SPC. "The Regional Enterprise Tower demonstrates that spirit of collaboration, and sets an example to Downtown and other neighborhoods that the creation of green buildings can be done not just through new construction, but also through retrofitting."
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Writer: Caralyn Green
Source: Matt Pavlosky, Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission
Photograph courtesy of Thomas Straw, Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission