Commercial, Solar  -  July 19, 2023

Houston Installs Sustainable, Solar Art

The City of Houston will install Arco del Tiempo (Arch of Time), a new standard of environmental sustainability for public art that includes solar modules, in 2024.

The artwork by Berlin-based artist and architect Riccardo Mariano takes the form of a 100-foot-tall triumphal arch and serves as a gateway to Houston’s East End/Segundo barrio neighborhood. 

Incorporating solar modules into the south-facing exterior of the sculpture, Arco del Tiempo will generate approximately 400,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, offsetting more than 100% of the power demand of the nearby Talento Bilingüe de Houston (TBH) a generational City-owned Latino cultural hub for performing arts in the East End.

The permanent art in public space will be installed in the city’s East End, Houston’s Second Ward.

“Over its lifetime, the artwork will generate more than 12 million kilowatt-hours of clean, renewable energy—the equivalent of removing 8,500 metric tons of carbon dioxide,” said Elizabeth Monoian, Founding Co-director of the Land Art Generator Initiative in a statement. Through the clean energy it produces, Arco del Tiempo (Arch of Time) will pay back its embodied carbon footprint. In other words, all the energy that went into its making—from the smelting of the steel to the drilling that puts the final cladding into place—will be offset through the energy it generates. Beyond its break-even point, which we will track and celebrate with the community, the artwork will be a net-positive contributor to a healthy climate and the planet will be better off for its existence.”

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