CoStar Richmond, a new landmark, is rising on the banks of the James River in Richmond, Virginia. More than a corporate headquarters, the expanded CoStar Group campus redefines the role of the building envelope: a surface that protects, performs, and produces energy.

The project’s ambition is clear — a high-performance workplace integrated with a façade system that combines advanced BIPV (Building-Integrated Photovoltaics) and expressive media glass to transform how an office tower interacts with its environment.

Understanding BIPV at Façade Scale

Building-Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) refers to solar technology that is embedded directly within building components — replacing or forming part of the façade, roof, or glazing — rather than being mounted as an add-on to the structure. BIPV systems generate electricity while also fulfilling architectural functions such as weather protection, daylighting control, and aesthetic expression.

In Richmond, the BIPV solution is delivered under the ISSOL® brand — part of the Belgian solar technology company SOLTECH — and forms a core part of the building’s curtain wall system. These are not conventional PV modules affixed to the surface: they are glass-glass photovoltaic panels integrated as structural façade elements, designed to meet both safety glazing and energy performance standards.

Who Is Behind the Solar Façade?

• SOLTECH (Belgium) — the engineering and manufacturer behind the façade system. The Richmond façade combines SOLTECH’s Glassiled® Motion panels for dynamic media performance with ISSOL® BIPV glass panels for energy production.
• ISSOL® — a SOLTECH-owned brand specializing in photovoltaic glass and curtain wall BIPV systems that replace traditional façade glass with power-producing equivalents.

ISSOL® systems integrate crystalline solar cells within laminated glass panels that meet structural safety and façade performance standards. These panels serve simultaneously as a building envelope, daylight filter, and energy generator.

Solar Quantities and Performance

While publicly available project sources do not yet disclose the exact total BIPV capacity or panel count for the Richmond façade as of late 2025, typical large-scale BIPV facades deliver measurable energy generation based on installed area and solar performance rates:

• BIPV curtain wall systems often range from 100 W to 160 W per square meter of façade area, depending on panel type, transparency, and orientation.
• At scale, such façades can deliver hundreds of megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity annually, contributing to on-site load reduction and sustainability targets. For example, similar ventilated BIPV façades at scale have been measured delivering between ~80 MWh and ~160 MWh per year for façades under a few thousand square meters of effective PV surface area.

Given the 26-storey tower’s significant glazed surface — estimated in the tens of thousands of square meters — the ISSOL® façade system in Richmond is expected to contribute meaningfully to on-site energy production, reducing grid demand and building CO₂ emissions over decades of operation.

Performance Beyond Power

The technical qualities of these integrated solar panels include:

• Safety-rated laminated glass with integrated crystalline photovoltaic cells that meet façade structural and fire standards.
• Invisible PV — solar generation without compromising visual transparency or architectural intent.
• Daylight control and glare modulation as part of the façade’s environmental performance.
• Multi-decade performance warranties align with the expected life cycle of high-performance curtain wall systems.

These capabilities underscore a fundamental shift in façade design — from passive enclosure to dynamic performance layer, blending energy generation with architectural and environmental control.

A Model of Façade-Scale Solar Integration

Ultimately, the CoStar Richmond project shows how BIPV can move beyond niche applications into core architectural infrastructure — generating measurable clean energy without compromise to design or performance. By integrating photovoltaic function directly into the building envelope, the project sets a precedent for how large commercial buildings can harvest solar power through design, not retrofit.

As industry adoption evolves, façades like Richmond’s will become benchmarks — not just for aesthetics or sustainability certifications, but for operational energy impact and longevity.