SMA America and STC Sunbelt SpA Shine a Spotlight on Sustainability with the Nueva Cordova Building

In the elite and illustrious Las Condes neighborhood in Santiago, Chile, sits a cutting-edge structure: the Nueva Cordova building, which houses the corporate headquarters for Nueva Las Condes. This architectural marvel features a shopping district on the ground floor, professional offices above and a view overlooking the Alonso de Córdova boulevard—the gateway to the most successful business district in Chile.

The building is truly spectacular. Not only are there PV panels lining the roof, but the building itself is also covered with a photovoltaic façade. Nueva Cordova, thanks to those features, is going through the process to be certified as LEED CS gold status.

For a building in this distinct, it was important to the customer to showcase the highest level of architectural innovation, and incorporating a photovoltaic solar façade served a variety of purposes. First, the facade supplies power to the building to reduce energy costs. The façade also represents the commitment to sustainability that has been woven into every component of the development process.

The sustainability measures of the building offset 190 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. For perspective, an electric vehicle would need to drive around the earth 105 times to use the amount of power equivalent to that produced by the array.

STC Sunbelt SpA is a Chilean company specialized in PV and solar thermal solutions for a wide range of applications, well known for BIPV and solar innovations in Chile. This organization is not affiliated with SMA Sunbelt Energy GmbH.

“We are very proud to be part of a project of this caliber,” said Daniel Rosende, managing director, SMA South America. “This project features elements of sustainability, from chargers for electric bikes and cars to the state-of-the-art PV arrays. We see this project as an example of what’s possible with thoughtful environmental design.”

Since the commissioning in February 2021, the high efficiency, monocrystalline panels have earned abundant attention due to the unique nature of the architectural façade of the building.

The building sources power from multiple sites. Tower A features 126 north-facing modules, which produce 300 Wp of power per unit. The northwest side of Tower A has 350 modules, which produce 300 Wp of power per unit. Meanwhile, the deck of Tower A houses 111 modules, which each produce 375 Wp of power.

From SMA America, the project developer selected both the Sunny Tripower 20,000TL and the CORE1 inverter for this project, creating a total inverter power supply of 100 kilowatts. These products perfectly complement the 587 Longi Solar monocrystalline panels. Together, the building elements give the project an estimated 191 KWh annually.

“I’ve worked with SMA for many, many years,” said Gabriel Neumeyer, founding partner and commercial technical manager with Sunbelt. “The choice to pick these particular solutions was made based on my understanding of the quality and reliability of the products.”

For more information on the Nueva Cordova building, click here.