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Helping Olympic Games Go Green Generates Green for Solatube

Installing ‘Daylighting’ Devices at Beijing Venue Brings More Work to Firm
By NED RANDOLPH
San Diego Business Journal Staff

Solatube International Inc. of Vista is getting exposure for its low energy “daylighting” product at the Beijing Olympics, which have been dubbed the “Green Olympics.”

The Chinese government is trying to revamp its image as a colossal greenhouse gas emitter by using sustainable and low energy technology in Olympic venues — from solar-heated showers to wind turbine-supplied electricity.

Solatube in December won a $200,000 contract to day-light the Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium for the judo and taekwondo competitions, scheduled for Aug. 9-15 and Aug. 20-23, respectively.

Solatube uses its Tubular Daylighting Device that literally transmits daylight through reflective hollow piping.

“It reduces power usage and exceeds our environmental design goals,” said Weimin Shuang, architect and dean of the Architecture Design Institute of China’s Qinghua University, in a news release.

Olympic designers wanted natural light at the 8,000-seat Beijing gymnasium, but without heat from the intense August sun. Skylights would be hampered by the steel-frame roof, high ceilings and other obstructions.

Chief Executive Officer David Rillie says Solatube installed 148 units that extend down 27 feet from the rooftop to a lowered ceiling 65 feet off the floor. A diffuser device then focuses the light onto the performance area like a flashlight with enough units to overlap evenly on the floor. Solatube completed its work at the Beijing gym in June.

Olympic Exposure

Rillie says just having his product at the Olympics has opened up a huge market.

“That’s one of the major reasons we got involved in this,” said Rillie, whose company has sold daylighting devices since 1992 to homeowners and, more recently, to commercial builders embracing green practices. “Even though we got paid for the project, it wasn’t something we made a whole lot of money out of.”

The Australian native added, “We got a ton of interest because of efforts to reduce energy and pollution and all the other things that go with it.”

Solatube recently sold 1,100 units to a Chinese construction firm for a new business park outside of Shanghai, and he expects many more contracts to follow.

“We’ve recorded sales not only in China but in surrounding Asian countries,” he said. “We’ve used (Beijing) as a platform.”