Patrick Quinlan
Username
Patrick Quinlan
Proposer First Name
Patrick
Proposer Email
pquinlan@solablock.com
Proposer Last Name
Quinlan
Boston 2021 Areas of Focus
Proposer Company/Organization
SolaBlock LLC
Proposer Phone
(413) 687-2853
Proposer Job Title
Co-founder
Proposer Additional Info
Also member of Silver Liners group in Bottom Lines
Proposed Session Description
Solar wall systems provide insulation, energy and carbon benefits to buildings in a single product—plus energy for air-filtration, heating and cooling. We will explore the technologies, economics, and sustainability impacts of including walls in a solar portfolio for buildings. The technologies include solarized masonry, rainscreen systems and conventionally-racked solar retrofits. The economics include looking at the costs and benefits to owners and occupants compared to conventional facade treatments, and the sustainability impacts address electricity demand reductions creating carbon-negative wall treatments, and building demand reductions leading to smaller footprints.
Diversity and Inclusiveness
Solar wall systems address the challenge of providing opportunities for disadvantaged communities to benefit from the economic, health, and financial independence of solar. For example, we will demonstrate how vertical wall systems have the potential to provide the occupants of urban high-rise multifamily apartment buildings with the choices that can lower their carbon footprint, address climate impacts and bring new communities into action for climate mitigation.
Learning Objectives
Learn about the current status of vertical solar technologies. Get updated on vertical solar activities across the US and the world. Learn about the drivers for vertical solar and how solar manufacturers and installers are responding.
Learn how solar walls differ and complement other types of solar applications. Adding vertical solar to a building brings it closer to net-zero energy, net-zero carbon. Discover where vertical solar makes sense, and where vertical solar applications fit where no one had previously considered solar before. Learn how the built environment aside from buildings is a new frontier for solar.
Learn about the differing markets and economic aspects of solar wall technologies. Learn how solar walls benefit cities, campuses and other public buildings in ways unlike conventional solar applications.
Learn how to recognize a solar wall opportunity in your practice. Learn how to design and build your own systems, and how to convey the benefits and costs to customers, building owners and occupants.
Has this session been presented before?
No
Additional Comments
No--but I have facilitated renewable energy conference sessions and presented before (ASES, AWEA, ASME, USGBC, etc.)
Target Audiences Level of Expertise
Level 2 - Some prior knowledge helpful.
Session Format Details
Considering 2-3 panelists providing presentations, then Q&A with the panelists. I will moderate.
Recommended Length
60-minute session
Strongest Content Connection - Boston 2021
Comments about your speaker roster
Jason is an active member of the Massachusetts chapter of the Bricklayers & Allied Craftsmen Union Local 3.
We will solicit 1-2 other architects or practitioners to fill out the panel.
Anything else you'd like to tell us about your session proposal?
We've previously put together similar presentations. Once it's over, we hear back from attendees that when they go out into a city afterward, they marvel at all the vertical space available for solar--it's a transformative change in understanding urban built environments.
Reviewer 1
Roth, Kurt
Proposal #
148
Committee Decision
Rejected
Presenters
Full Description
Solar technologies have come down in cost so significantly that it is now economic to also consider solar on walls as viable. Yet most architect and solar designers overlook walls--we want to demonstrate why solar walls are important and why they represent a great expansion of the solar industry into new, complementary markets.