Dell Does it Again! Solar Trees Planted in Dell Parking Lot
Dell has been a trend-setter when it comes to the incorporation of greener technologies to reduce their corporate carbon footprint and they’re doing it again! Although this time they are following the lead of Google, by installing solar trees in the parking lot of their head office in Round Rock, Texas.
The solar trees were created by Envision Solar, which was also responsible for Google’s installation, and will accomplish more than one goal for the company – providing a green solar option that will provide some level of power to the headquarters site, and create charging stations for employees in the staff parking lot. Although Envision Solar engineered the project, the solar panels themselves are byproducts of BP Solar and the charging points themselves, which will provide plug-in energy for those driving hybrid and electric vehicles to work at Dell, come from Coulomb Technologies.
The solar trees will provide 130,000 KW per year to the facility, and also offer shade and charging points to staff in the parking lots; the only downside of this installation is that the trees are only accessible for shade and charging for a small percentage of Dell employees who drive to work since they cover a mere 56 spots and have 2 Clean Charge stations for plug-in power in the Round Rock lot.
Via: Jetson Green
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October 28th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
good to know dell is also following this trend that google has started, soon the success of every company should also incorporate their involvement in clean energy, this should also form part of their corporate social responsibily
October 28th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
How does following Google’s lead make Dell a “trendsetter”? It would be interesting to know what percentage of Dell’s workforce drives a plug-in hybrid or electric car to work and what happens to all the extra energy generated by these cells if that’s all they’re being used to power.
October 28th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
If I’m not mistaken , you mean 130,000 KW Hr. per year .
Kw is a measure of instantaneous power .
October 29th, 2009 at 11:17 am
What percentage of Dell’s revenue has been earmarked ( set aside ) to deal with the problem of waste disposal of its toxic products?
That would be a true indicator of how green is Dell. Not installing a few solar trees on its campus.
Shipping all the toxic waste comprising of old PCBs to developing countries is not the solution for Americans who get tired on their very functional PCs and laptops each Christmas, just because Intel’s and Microsoft’s advertising makes them feel inadequate !
Check this out:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Toxic-waste-on-US-ship-Gujarat-panel/articleshow/5132641.cms
Enjoy !
Kim Singh
kim_singh@yahoo.com
October 30th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
No mention of how much this cost, though. Also, no mention on how much of a dent in the building’s electrical bill it’ll provide. Would really like to see those stats.
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:03 am
All the employees will be down there trying to charge up there iPods.
December 5th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
While Envision Solar touts its accomplishment, the true accolades belong to McBride Electric located in Austin (Round Rock) Texas. It was McBride Electric that was the general contractor for Dell Computers and chose to use Envision for the structural design of the “Trees”. They [McBride] utilized other contractors for various portions of the project on various trades. Though there were significant issues involved with the structural steel by Envision that caused McBride to make in-the-field repairs and changes to the assembly, McBride overcame those obstacles and produced a great landmark installation for Dell. This is obviously just the very first of many installation of both covered parking and most likely roof top mounted photovoltaic system that Dell will be installing. The credit belongs to those at the general contractor [McBride Electric] and Dell for an outstanding project. I watched the building of this outside of my window.
December 5th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
I heard 7 to 8 year payback and about $500,000 to $600,000 to build