Concordia University

Background

The John Molson School of Business (JMSB) at Concordia University in Montreal is considered one of the top business schools in Canada. In 2007, plans for the construction of a brand new facility that would house the business school were underway, and the Solar Buildings Network at Concordia proposed the idea of demonstrating a new state-of-the-art hybrid solar technology— SolarWall® PV/Thermal—developed by Conserval Engineering. It combines the award-winning SolarWall® air heating technology with photovoltaic panels in one highly-efficient system. Of all the energy produced in Canada, 50% is consumed in buildings (NRCan Technical Report OEE 2952). This emphasizes the importance of building integrated renewable energy systems—like the SolarWall PV/T system— that are able to cost effectively produce multiple forms of clean green energy from the same surface.