Category: blog

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Cut from Solar Cloth

Posted on | by Julia Fowler

Energies Magazine | June 23, 2022

Representing more than a decade of collaboration between its principals – Colin Touhey, an electrical engineer, Todd Dalland, a pioneering designer and inventor in the field of lightweight structures, and Robert Lerner, AIA, an architect who has led new technology development programs involving lightweight, deployable structures for NASA, the U.S. Army, and the U.S. Air Force – Pvilion is a small company based out of Brooklyn, New York, that designs and manufactures solar powered fabric products. In recent years, its team has grown to approximately ten members.

Well on its way to revolutionizing the alternative energy industry, Pvilion’s market offerings include alternative solar solutions in the architectural, fashion, event, hospitality, disaster relief, municipal and military spaces, to name a few. Its product portfolio ranges from stand-alone solar canopies, solar military tents, grid-tied long span structures, and solar powered charging stations, to building facades, backpacks and clothing. While simple in theory, its integration of solar cells with fabric in order to build textile products that can generate electricity has been largely met with success over the past decade. Any surface that receives sunlight has the opportunity to be used as a surface that can generate electricity. As cofounder and CEO Touhey says, “That’s the most exciting thing; [it’s] incredibly thrilling.”

A Different Kind of Shade

For consumers and businesses that seek Pvilion’s signature solar shade, it offers a convenient, customizable product line available for order. Customers can choose from permanent architectural pieces, semi-permanent canopies, and fully mobile structures. While its roots are well established in its local NYC community (including at the New York Botanical Gardens, New York Public Library, outdoor dining areas and other community gardens), you can find Pvilion’s tents in many other settings wherever the sun shines around the globe.

Changing the Event Industry

Of course, not everyone that wants to incorporate more sustainable practices is in the market for a brand new tent. To offer a solution for those in the event industry that want to add solar capabilities to their own tents, Pvilion recently partnered with Anchor Industries, the largest tent manufacturer in the United States, to offer clip-on tent attachments that can be applied to pre-existing event tents. The clip-on attachments are easy to connect to all event tents and come with a fully integrated battery kit. These kits allow event hosts to set up anywhere and power their events fully off the grid, while reducing the need for harmful emission-emitting diesel generators.

Rocking the Solar Market

Recently, Pvilion has provided the Grammy-award winning band Coldplay and its production team with easy-to-transport solar fabric kits to help power their Music of the Spheres world tour. Beginning in Costa Rica, Pvilion’s solar fabric kits are traversing the globe with the famous band. Lightweight and easy to set up and take down, the kits consist of sheets of Pvilion’s solar fabric that can be built anywhere that receives sunlight. The fabric solar panels charge the kits’ batteries through the day and power the stage underworld at night.

Defense

The small Brooklyn-based company isn’t only changing the way it powers events and concerts. It is also working with the U.S. Air Force Rapid Sustainment Office to provide the USAF with sustainable tents for expeditionary use. The Solar Powered Integrated Structures (SPIS), or SPIS, are fully self-sufficient tent systems that include heating, air conditioning, lighting and power sources for plugging-in off the grid. Fully operational in both expeditionary and austere environments, they reduce emissions and the USAF’s logistical footprint in any global setting.

Hospitality

Pvilion has also partnered with Zion Spirit Group to collaborate on the creation of rentable resort suites in Zion National Park in southwest Utah. These resort suites will feature sustainable designs and beautiful, organic-inspired architecture. In total, Spirit will create 36 suites and four homesteads for rent, directly adjacent to Zion National Park. Designed by Nomadic Resorts, the process of bringing these suites to life will begin later this year. Pvilion’s contribution includes the namesake of the suites, as well as the design and fabrication of the leaf-shaped rooftops for the “Leaf Suites.” Just like actual leaves, these beautiful rooftops will convert sunlight into energy and will use 25 kW of Pvilion’s photovoltaic fabric technology.

Making a Shift

As the world makes the shift to more sustainable practices, alternative solar solutions like Pvilion’s solar fabric offer a realistic solution. The state of California has already banned the use of fossil fuel-emitting portable generators in many settings, and others are expected to follow suit. There is unlimited potential for the integration of solar energy into non-traditional fabric surfaces. From awnings, to boat covers, to industrial structures, and everything in between, solar fabric offers a flexible opportunity to generate sustainable energy anywhere. While Pvilion offers its products directly to commercial consumers, it also maintains partnerships with businesses as an OEM provider of their solar fabric products, establishing it as a pioneer in the alternative energy industry.

To view the original article, click here.

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Talking Textiles Podcast: Manufacturing the Next Textile Experts

Posted on | by Julia Fowler

July 20, 2022

About This Episode

Dan Walczyk and Glenn Saunders have always enjoyed tinkering and taking things apart. This passion eventually led them to work as engineers and professors in the study of industrial robots, textile automation, fusing and composites. Today, as professors at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, they strive to produce the best engineering students and thus restore the manufacturing businesses globally. Listen in and learn more on our latest episode of Talking Textiles.

This episode is hosted by Pvilion co-founder and CEO, Colin Touhey.

To view this podcast on the IFAI website, click here.

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Project Arcwater: Sustaining more than just the warfighter

Posted on | by Julia Fowler

52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs |  July 3, 2022 | By Tech. Sgt. Maeson L. Elleman

photo courtesy of Spangdahlem Air Base

OTWOCK, Poland —  Her words fell with a staggering weight as she began to recount the emotional journey that led her and her team of colleagues to this point.

Her purple glasses, pink-floral blouse, pink lipstick and thin gold chain necklace told the story of a bubbly, approachable woman, and her tone and articulation lent credence to her many years of education and experience. Yet through her smile, her struggle was apparent.

Pulling through the pandemic was already hard enough; organizations like hers had been forced to abandon their traditional practices for years or cancel programs altogether. What had once been an infallible annual tradition of teaching children English through an art summer camp in Poland was in triage for the third year in a row.

“This year had been a very hard year for me, personally,” said Mary Kay Pieski, co-president of Eagle-Orzel Educational and Cultural Exchange, Inc. who has a doctorate in cultural foundations of education. “I was up against a board that was saying no to me, and teachers that were saying, ‘No, we don’t feel comfortable.’”

Eagle-Orzel is a nonprofit cultural exchange organization between the U.S. and Poland has partnered with Poviat Youth Cultural Center in Otwock to host an annual summer camp for teaching English to Polish children through different arts.

The summer camp has become a tremendous part of Pieski’s life in many ways; it’s been an annual summertime staple for her throughout the past 27 years. Feeling as if she was faced with the abrupt end of something she has cherished so much fell onto her like a ton of bricks.

This year would be different, though. By partnering with the U.S. Air Force at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, Pieski and her eight colleagues would finally cross the Atlantic to join what she considers to be her overseas family once again.

“At that point, I was very concerned because most of our volunteers were hesitant to come to Poland this summer because of the situation in Ukraine, and also COVID was preventing us the last two years to come,” Pieski said. “I was so upset because I didn’t know how I was going to make this happen this summer.”

Up to this point, the last few years had been especially challenging for Pieski. Though vaccinations and relaxed restrictions eased travel challenges in the early months of 2022, she received gut-wrenching news she feared would permanently end her participation in the English-language summer camp.

“I was diagnosed with breast cancer,” Pieski said. “I made it through surgery and radiation, and I was like, ‘I’m going to Poland, no matter what,’ but I just couldn’t find the way.”

This year’s program in Otwock, Poland, was further complicated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – Poland’s neighboring country – which sewed uncertainty in the nonprofit’s board members and cast doubt in its security.

Airman gives a demonstration of Project Arcwater to children at a summer camp.
People construct field tent.
Airman gives a demonstration of Project Arcwater to children at a summer camp.
photos courtesy of Spangdahlem Air Base

That’s when she called an old friend, Tech. Sgt. Matt Connelly, the innovation manager for the 52nd Fighter Wing, who first joined the summer camp as a teacher’s assistant roughly a decade ago.

“We would not be here at all if it wasn’t for Matt,” Pieski said. “His positive attitude, his assurance, his determination to work with us and make this happen for us … It was just incredible,” Pieski said. “It was an absolute, answer-to-prayer miracle that happened here on many levels.”

Connelly is the resident improvement expert at Spangdahlem Air Base. He teaches classes on process improvement and has helped countless members at the installation bring their workplace innovation ideas to fruition – ideas like Project Arcwater, the latest crowned champion of the Air Force Spark Tank innovation competition.

After speaking more with Connelly, Pieski had a way forward: Send a formal invitation to 52nd FW leadership asking Connelly to join.

While discussing the terms of joining the Eagle-Orzel bunch as a volunteer aid, it hit him: This was an opportunity for the Air Force, too. Connelly could help the summer camp continue forward, teaching both Polish and Ukrainian refugee children through humanitarian aid, while also field testing the Air Force’s latest big-name innovation.

Project Arcwater was pitched to provide two main services: Clean electrical power and ultra-pure drinking water. The system uses advanced solar fabric* and an atmospheric water harvester to drastically slash greenhouse gas emissions, fuel and equipment transportation challenges, and their associated costs in order to provide sustainable services in austere environments – or in this case, a two-week children’s summer camp.

“Project Arcwater is the number-one innovation in the Air and Space Forces; we report to the vice chief of staff just about every two weeks about what’s going on with Arcwater,” Connelly said. “The option of stepping away even for a personal vacation or anything, it’s very tough when we’re in a one-person position. It was a phenomenal feeling to combine something that was both humanitarian and practical for the needs of the Air Force,” Connelly said. “I love doing these kinds of volunteer programs; I’ve done this before on two separate occasions, and it was always very fulfilling. If we can effectively double-book by not only doing innovation work but also doing educational and humanitarian work – assurance and deterrence – that’s just a combination made in heaven.”

Using only sunlight and water from the air, the innovation can sustain dozens of warfighters during Agile Combat Employment, but the system is designed for a wide range of applications like humanitarian aid and disaster response. What normally requires a large generator and countless 55-gallon drums of diesel fuel can now fit in the beds of a couple pickup trucks.

After a few months of coordination with the Polish State Department, U.S. embassy in Poland, 52nd FW leadership, and Arcwater’s developer, Senior Master Sgt. Brent Kenney, the solar fabric system, the water harvester, an air conditioner and a small tent were loaded into two pickup trucks and driven across two countries to join the Eagle-Orzel crew.

The system will be put to the test supplying more people for a longer time than it had ever been tested before. A success at the summer camp is a success for agile warfighter sustainment in operations around the world.

“Arcwater was designed for 55 adult individuals,” Connelly said. “This would be a situation where we have 75 children plus the adult cadre. What this would allow us to do is seriously stress-test the system for not just two days, three days, four days … it would allow us to stress-test the system for more than two weeks, and that was, in terms of data, absolute gold for us.”

The summer camp is slated to continue through July 8.

To read the original article, click here.

*Project ArcWater uses Pvilion’s solar powered fabric to harvest water, heat and cool, and provide shelter.

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Solar Fabric Canopies

Posted on | by Julia Fowler

Flexible solar panels integrated into fabric are giving tenants a new outdoor amenity that generates its own power. Here’s how you can create next-generation amenity spaces with this new solar technology.

Buildings | Janelle Penny

A new solar technology combines flexible solar panels with fabric to create a canopy that generates electricity.

Solar fabric architecture, the result of combining fabric and solar cells, can be used to create canopies and other shaded gathering places where building occupants can relax while they recharge their devices.

“It’s a pretty basic concept – it’s a surface that’s getting hit by the sun all day and previously wasn’t creating electricity. Now it is,” explains Colin Touhey, CEO of Pvilion, a solar fabric manufacturer. “We’re taking areas that get hit by the sun, providing shading and putting solar cells on them to serve a multi-purpose.”

solar_1

(Photo: Solar sails are an easy way to create an outdoor sitting area for charging devices, eating lunch, or having outdoor meetings with colleagues. Credit: Pvillion)

How Solar Fabric Works

A solar fabric installation starts with an idea. Facilities professionals who know they want an outdoor hangout space with flexible solar panels will work with manufacturers like Pvilion to customize the project to the conditions on the site. This will account for:

  • Where the site gets the most sun
  • Local code, including wind load requirements
  • How to engineer the structure so that the fabric won’t flap around in a storm

Once the project is designed, thin film solar panels are laminated to sturdy fabric that can handle outdoor conditions. The fabric is then mounted on a frame, pole or other structure. The solar-powered space can be grid-tied or grid-independent and typically generate 10-15W per square foot of panel, Touhey adds. Many structures can be erected in a few hours or less – most of the work is done ahead of time, with just structure-building and basic wiring required on-site.

“We just did a few installations in parks in Atlanta that are basically benches under a beautiful arching canopy that provides shade in the summer and rain protection, and there are USB ports and AC outlets there for you to charge your phone or work on your laptop,” Touhey says. “Outdoor canopies are a hot topic right now. At Google’s headquarters, we did some outdoor juice bars – a café juice bar but in an indoor-outdoor space where you’re protecting it, making it waterproof and providing shading.”

The solar fabric is also ideal for open parking lots that are exposed to the elements all day. Carports can use the flexible fabric or a more rigid panel solution to offset the electrical demand of parking lot lighting or charge electric vehicles.

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(Photo: Capital Cascades Park in Tallahassee, FL, features a solar-powered pedestrian bridge that uses flexible solar fabric. The panels on the fabric power the park’s lighting. Credit: Pvillion)

What to Know About Solar Fabric Architecture

This application of flexible solar panels may be new, but the maintenance is the same as it’s always been. A simple semi-annual cleaning with soap and water will make sure the panels can harvest the maximum amount of energy from the sun. A good rule of thumb is to clean the panels whenever you need to clean the fabric.

“If the white is getting dirty, the panels are as well. They’re just not as visible,” says Touhey. “But the panels are still going to work – you just want them to look nice.”

Solar fabric installations often qualify for investment tax credits, adds Touhey, so any financial discussion around investing in this new solar technology should take incentives into consideration. Pvilion’s clients are typically already interested in adding a solar-powered amenity, but the federal incentives make it easier to justify the upfront cost.

solar_3

(Photo: Solar fabric creates a shady spot for cars. The energy it harvests from the sun can power parking lot lighting or even partially charge the cars parked under it. Credit: Pvillion)

“If you’re looking to put a $10,000 architectural trellis on your rooftop, you’re going to write a check for $10,000 to your contractor. If you add a $12,000 solar trellis to your rooftop, you’re immediately eligible for the 30 percent Investment Tax Credit, accelerated depreciation and any state and local incentives,” explains Touhey. “Just by adding a little bit of solar, you’re reducing the installation cost. You’re making the thing you were already going to spend money on cheaper.”

Tenant amenities are rapidly becoming sought-after ways to attract new tenants and retain existing ones. Extras like powered outdoor workspaces and device-charging relaxation stations could be the thing that sets your facility apart from the competition. Investigate this new solar technology and see if a canopy laminated with solar cells is the right investment for you.

To read the full original article, click here.

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NYC Rooftop Vineyard Leverages Solar Power for F&B

Posted on | by Julia Fowler

The 15,000-square-foot Rooftop Reds space puts an emphasis on sustainability and social responsibility.

Hospitality Technology | June 29, 2022 | Robert Firpo-Cappiello

The founders of Rooftop Reds are on a mission. 

The pioneering rooftop vineyard, spanning 15,000 square feet at NYC’s Brooklyn Navy Yard, boasts nearly 200 grapevines, colorful seating, decorative lights, and jaw-dropping views of the Manhattan and Brooklyn skylines. And its status as the first rooftop vineyard is just the beginning.

Promoting Sustainability

“We’re developing a new breed of urban agriculture and sustainability practices to help reduce the heat island effect and inspire creative thought regarding city green spaces,” says Rooftop Reds founder Devin Shomaker.

A major component of the vineyard’s sustainability practices is a partnership with fellow Brooklyn-based technology company Pvilion to install solar fabric installations onsite, allowing Rooftop Reds’ food and event programming — including pizza and wine movie nights; wine, chocolate, and oyster tastings; vineyard tours; and locally sourced dinners — to become primarily solar dependent for the height of the summer season.

“We host many food events at Rooftop Reds,” says Shomaker. “With the investment of solar systems, we are living our mission of being a sustainable and forward-thinking business.”

On a day-to-day basis, the solar installation mostly generates energy for the property’s perimeter and vineyard lighting. When Rooftop Reds hosts food events, they often use the stored solar energy to assist with their cookware energy needs. 

“Solar is just another way we can promote and educate sustainability via our food programming,” says Shomaker. “While the economic benefits from solar for our business are quite minor, being able to speak about our values regarding sustainability practices with confidence is very important to both our staff and guests.”

Making Vineyards Accessible

Rooftop Reds’ mission also extends to social responsibility. By bringing the vineyard experience to the city, easily accessible via public transportation such as subway, bus, and ferry, the vineyard allows New Yorkers to enjoy an eco-friendly wine-culture experience close to home, without driving miles to the state’s renowned wine regions like the North Fork of Long Island or the Finger Lakes. 

Shomaker and his partner TJ Provenzano and GM Irina Sargisova also hope to “de-snobify” wine culture by making it approachable, fun, and educational. “We accomplish this lofty goal by focusing on a 100% New York State wine, beer and cider list,” says Shomaker. “We offer a casual environment with beer garden & bistro tables, hammocks, yard games, porch swings, pergolas, and an outdoor movie theater on the rooftop. Wine can and should be fun to enjoy and share!”

Rooftop Reds produces a range of tasty, reasonably priced whites, sparkling wines, rosés, and, yes, reds, in collaboration with Point of the Bluff Vineyards, in Hammondsport, NY.

To read the full original article, click here.

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Pvilion and Atlantic Council Build Solar Powered Resiliency Pod to Serve Miami Community

Posted on | by Julia Fowler

The Floridant |  June 2, 2022

BROOKLYN, N.Y. & MIAMI – Floridant — Pvilion, a Brooklyn-based solar fabric company, has recently provided the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center with solar capabilities for their first ever Community Resiliency Pod. The use of Pvilion’s lightweight solar fabric— rather than traditional solar panels—  has offered an innovative solution that allows for flexible set-up and easy transit. The solar canopies will provide the Pod with upgraded power storage and charging stations for visitors to use while they explore the Pod as it tours different communities throughout Miami.

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Launched in June of 2020, the Miami Community Resilience Pod was created by the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, to raise climate change awareness and education in resilience. The Pod is also designed to assist in natural disasters and emergency scenarios throughout South Florida. The Resilience Center was originally a shipping container donated by the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) and has since been transformed to a mobile structure that serves many different purposes in the community. The Pod has been transported to different locations such as schools, parks, libraries, and conferences, where locals can engage with climate experts and learn through interactive programming.

“We are proud to add solar capabilities to the Pod. With its dedication to resiliency and environmental responses, adding renewable energy is the perfect addition to aid in serving the community. Solar will empower the Pod by allowing for independence and flexibility without harming the local environment,” said Pvilion CEO Colin Touhey. The Pod is constantly on the move throughout Miami and most recently made its debut in Orlando, Florida. It has engaged with over 100,000 visitors, and supplies fruit trees, vegetable garden kits and native plants, in addition to hurricane guides and supplies. The Pod was designed and fabricated by CambridgeSeven and is the first of hopefully many more of its kind.

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Hurricane season is quickly approaching and officially began June 1st and will last until November 30th. Additionally, Miami-Dade County is now officially in its first “heat season” that will run from May 1st until October 31st. As these conditions affect South Florida, the Pod will serve as an asset to community preparedness and relief.

“We are excited to partner with Pvilion as they supply our Community Resilience Pod with solar power. This renewable energy source, designed in a flexible and lightweight fabric, is an essential component of our Pod. The system demonstrates the importance of individual and community resilience. The advantage of an independent power source supports both our ongoing mobile programming and our future disaster response efforts- where our most underserved residents can charge their devices to stay connected,” said Atlantic Council Director of Strategic Partnerships, Rosemary Mann.

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This past April, the Pod was deployed at Zoo Miami, where visitors of the zoo stopped by to explore the Pod and engage with the Arsht Rock team, while learning about the solar installation. In May, the Pod was featured at the inaugural Aspen Ideas: Climate, a global conference on Miami Beach, where the public had an opportunity to learn and interact with others in the community about the realities of climate change. The Pod will continue to move throughout Miami-Dade County all summer long. To tour the Pod, or learn more about their upcoming schedule, please go to: https://onebillionresilient.org/project/community-resilience-pod/

About Pvilion
Pvilion is a solar-based fabrics and tent company, who offers products that range from stand-alone solar canopies to solar military tents, grid-tied long span structures, solar powered charging stations, solar powered curtains, building facades, backpacks, and clothing. They are known for integrating solar cells with fabrics and building fabric products that can generate electricity.

To view the original article, click here.

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Let’s talk integrated photovoltaics

Posted on | by Julia Fowler

GreenBiz |  May 26, 2022  |  By: Heather Clancy

The integrated photovoltaic movement

The idea of integrating photovoltaic technology into stuff — mainly electronics and buildings — isn’t exactly new.

I’ll bet most of you probably had (or have) one of those solar-powered calculators or maybe even a computer keyboard. And the market for solar capacity built into glass and other construction materials, especially roofs, has gotten more attention this year with a high-profile installation at Google’s new campus and a new product line from GAF Energy, a division of North America’s largest roofing company. And a report published in early May projects global sales of $13 billion by 2028 for the building integrated photovoltaics market, up from $4.6 billion in 2021.

Building retrofits are a tough sell, but I’m fascinated by the role that integrated solar could play in smaller, pop-up structures. That’s a market being developed by Pvilion, an 11-year-old company in Brooklyn, New York, that has designed a line of solar-integrated tents, canopies, building facades and so on.

Pvilion concept
An example of Pvilion’s pop-up shelter designs. Photo courtesy of Pvilion

For Pvilion, the photovoltaic technology is part of a durable, waterproof, PVC-coated polyester fabric. (We didn’t discuss the chemical makeup of the material.) Co-founder and CEO Colin Touhey, an electrical engineer who started the company with an architect and structural expert, said Pvilion has experienced steady growth in supplying organizations that need mobile command centers or shelters with a power supply that could be used for Wi-Fi or charging and other specific applications. “They are designed to be temporary, but engineered to be permanent,” he told me.  

These structures could be used in places such as parks (Pvilion has a contract with New York City, and several shelters are up and charging in the New York Botanical Gardens and some public libraries) or for mobile missions (the U.S. Air Force is testing 40 of its military tent designs in a wide variety of geographies, including Alaska and New Mexico).

Like with most things, the cost of a Pvilion tent kit varies depending on the features selected and the size, ranging between $7,000 and $10,000 for the frame, solar fabric, energy storage, the ballast to keep the structure secured to the ground and lighting, according to Touhey. 

Hmm, I’m in the market for some shade in my backyard.

Seriously, though. The appeal of the technologies being developed by both Ambient and Pvilion is undeniable. I believe they represent another example of the power of distributed approaches to generating renewable energy in improving energy access and community resilience.

To view the original article, click here:

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PSDcast – The Basics of Solar Clothing

Posted on | by Julia Fowler

April 19, 2022

About This Episode

One area of renewable energy we haven’t really covered, at least as of yet, is the wearable sort – including and especially solar clothing that generates power while you go about your daily routine. But it’s still a technology with a ton of potential, and here to discuss that is Pvilion CEO Colin Touhey.

To view this podcast on the Power Systems Design website, click here.

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Talking Textiles Podcast: The Magic of Fabric Solar Cells

Posted on | by Julia Fowler

April 15, 2022

About This Episode

What do a Smithsonian exhibit tent, a synthetic leather clutch and renewable energy all have in common? On today’s Talking Textiles, learn this and more from Colin Touhey, founder and CEO of Pvilion, a company whose mission is to integrate solar cells with fabrics and build fabric products that generate electricity. Interviewed by Haskell Beckham of the Colombia Sportswear Company, Colin gives advice for students and how they should push their way into a company they love.

To view this podcast on the IFAI website, click here.

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Anchor & Pvilion partner to provide solar power to tent rental industry

Posted on | by Julia Fowler

InTents Magazine |  February 2, 2022  |  By: IFAI

Anchor Industries has partnered with Pvilion to introduce solar power to the tent world utilizing a heavy duty portable solar canopy and battery. The product was showcased at the IFAI Tent Expo in Daytona, Fla. in January 2022.

Adding solar panels to event tents removes the need for diesel generators.

Founded in 1892, Anchor Industries is a manufacturer of event tents, awnings, canopies, shade and clear span structures.

“Our two teams have done an outstanding job in the last few months collaborating and partnering together to make the tent rental industry green. We think there are tent customers who want to lower their carbon footprint. It’s our job as leaders in the industry to give them the tools to help them do just that.” said Anchor President, Pete Mogavero. “As the price of electricity steadily increases year after year, we are making it our job to provide solar canopy structures that our customers will enjoy. They are lightweight, flexible, easy to install, durable, and energy efficient.” he added.

Pvilion is a Brooklyn-based solar fabric manufacturing company. Their products range from stand-alone solar canopies, solar military tents, grid-tied long span structures, solar-powered charging stations to solar-powered curtains, building facades, backpacks, clothing, and clip-on tent attachments.

“As the world makes the shift away from fossil fuels to more sustainable options and clean energy, the event industry is doing the same,” said Pvilion CEO Colin Touhey. “Adding Pvilion’s solar capabilities to event tents, thereby removing the need for diesel generators, will change the industry forever. We’re pleased to partner with Anchor to help make this monumental transition.”

Anchor and Pvilion will be featuring the product in April at Anchor University.

More information on Anchor Industries and Pvilion can be found at www.anchorinc.com and www.pvilion.com.

To read the full original article, click here.