When well-known St. Louis entrepreneur Joe Edwards reached out to Mark Lopata at Azimuth Energy (No. 134 on the 2017 Top Solar Contractors list), Lopata knew he was in for a creative, cutting-edge project.
Edwards had opened the Rooftop Terrace Bar on top of his Moonrise Hotel in the historic Delmar Loop area of the city but could only use it three months out of the year because of unpredictable weather in the spring and fall. He had planned to put a fabric awning over the front of the bar to get more use out of it but ultimately decided to go a different route.
“We put the deal together for him so that it was only a small cost addition to make the awning solar instead of fabric,” Lopata said.
Phase 1 of the project was installing a 60-ft rigid awning with solar panels over the Rooftop Terrace Bar. After installing the awning, Azimuth Energy installed electric vehicle charging stations, lighting upgrades inside the hotel, a rooftop solar system and street-level solar awnings at the theater next door that’s also owned by Edwards.
The solar-powered awnings on the rooftop bar were such a hit that Edwards wanted to build a solarized event space too. He contracted Azimuth Energy to build the steel structure and install panels on top of the new Rooftop Twilight Room.
The Rooftop Twilight Room looks like a scene from The Jetsons: Mid-century modern furniture in funky shapes and colors, groovy planets hanging from the ceiling and sun streaming through the solar-paneled roof.
Lopata said Edwards is a space junkie and has space memorabilia displayed in cabinets all over the hotel. The hotel’s crowning achievement sits on top of the building: The world’s largest man-made moon. So it’s no surprise that Edwards wanted the new solar additions to be visible, adding to the hotel’s spacey vibe. Azimuth Energy used panels with clear back sheets so they were semi-transparent.
“You go in there and sunlight, streetlight and moonlight filter down through the panels,” Lopata said. The awnings create some natural lighting in the space, and patrons can get an up-close look at the different parts of the panels.
The project wasn’t without challenges. While building the event structure, Lopata had trouble finding a racking solution for the array that was more than 100 ft high.
“There’s not one that I was able to find that guarantees their product more than 100 ft above the ground,” Lopata said.
There was no prefabricated kit that would work for this installation—not only was it noncompliant with typical site conditions, but the shape and attachments to the steel structure were irregular too. So the framework had to be custom-engineered to withstand the winds at the high altitude atop the building. The modules and racking couldn’t be modified, but they were checked for suitability against the uplift force from the wind.
The racking then had to be analyzed, and the appropriate number and placement of anchor attachments were engineered to suit the site conditions.
“Overall it was an exercise of anticipating the worst case and engineering around that in advance,” Lopata said.
Another challenge involved safety.
“The panels basically are the roof of a normally occupied space, so there are a lot of safety concerns associated with that that we had to address,” Lopata said. The team had to answer questions like, “What if there’s a hailstorm?” (Answer: Close the room down.) They also had to make sure the wires were out of harm’s way, so they hid the DC conductors inside the module rails. Once the wires reach outside of the interior space, they transition to a conduit that leads to the inverter power plant.
Despite the challenges of this unique installation, the feedback Azimuth Energy has gotten from Edwards and the hotel guests has been positive.
“It’s a great marketing benefit for them,” Lopata said. “And it’s a nice educational opportunity, because I know school groups go there and look at it, and once in a while they’ll call me to do a tour.”
The rooftop bar is so successful that another hotel in the Delmar Loop area added one. But it doesn’t have solar panels—yet.
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