When Inspace Partnerships and Places for People were designing for a development of housing at the former site of the Royal Train shed at Wolverton, Milton Keynes, they faced a dilemma. They wanted to build to the highest standards of energy efficiency by incorporating renewable energy, while at the same time sensitively preserving the external appearance of these listed buildings.

Viridian Solar was invited to help, and as a result invented the Clearline Vetro solar panel. Vetro is a frameless solar heating panel for use within glazing systems. A solar cassette with extended glass edges which can be assembled into a glazing system such as sloping roof glazing or curtain walling as if it were a sheet of glass.

The glass cover of the solar panel finishes at the same height as adjacent glazing, and the resulting aesthetic is almost indistinguishable from the surrounding windows.

Sixty three houses were fitted with solar water heating, 4.5 sq m per dwelling made up of a total of 189 panels. Read Case Study 007 here.

Clearline Vetro is now available from Lonsdale Metal Company Limited in the UK.