Flexible facade collectors for solar architecture
  • © Professur für Entwerfen und Gebäudehülle der TU München

Adaptive facade collectors for solar architecture

In the ArKol research project, novel thermal solar collectors were developed for use in building facades. Borderstep supported the project consortium on behalf of Fraunhofer ISE in developing the technology using innovation and technology management methods.

The result of the project is two concepts for facade collectors based on heat pipes: a strip collector and a solar thermal louvre. These give architects great design freedom for solar architecture. Heat pipes also allow efficient heat transport on small cross-sectional areas.

Tapping the thermal potential of facades

While the strip collector can be integrated into the facade and offers high efficiency, the solar thermal venetian blind is to be used between glass panes (e.g. in glass facades or windows). The requirements for the solar thermal venetian blind are particularly high. It is movable, generates renewable heat and at the same time reduces the proportion of energy that enters a building in the form of solar radiation through glass surfaces (transmission).

More design scope for solar architecture

For the facade collectors, numerous technical challenges had to be solved in the ArKol project. One goal was to develop market-oriented solutions, e.g. in the form of products and services for strip collectors and venetian blinds, together with later users.

Borderstep supported this by working with the project partners and users to record and evaluate requirements for such solutions. In order to be able to implement the solutions after project completion, business models and value creation partnerships were also developed.

In order to demonstrate the practicability of the strip collector, a demonstration facade was built at a project partner: https://arkol.de/de.

The concept of the solar thermal venetian blind will be further pursued in the follow-up project Destini.

further information

Our Partners