Stephen Fisher, Market Development Manager at Corus Colors, gives his take on the recent SolarWall in Action Event at the British Motor Heritage Museum….
Free heating, reduced fuel bills, reduced CO2 emissions, improved BREEAM ratings, excellent ventilation properties. Music to the ears of any building owner. Acting as a third skin to the building fabric, SolarWall® is a perforated Transpired Solar Collector which harnesses solar radiation to heat ambient air via a perforated collector.
Solar heated air is drawn from the external surface of the collector, through the perforations, before being distributed into the building where it is used directly as building ventilation or as a pre-heater for the building’s main heating system- reducing the amount of energy required to heat the building and associated CO2 emissions. New build and retro-fit buildings can utilise the technology which uses Corus Colorcoat Prisma® pre-finished steel. The level of initial interest for the SolarWall® product has been high.
Every time I have presented the offering alongside the Colorcoat® branded product offering, I have been met with requests for more information from the customer, or further meetings, to enable their other team members to hear about the benefits the CA Group product can bring to a project. So it was no real surprise to me that at the Motor Heritage Museum at Gaydon, venue for the SolarWall® in Action day this month, attendance figures were 40% over capacity. Representatives from a number of high profile clients, some of Europe’s biggest main contractors, along with developers and construction consultants were in attendance.
Some had heard of SolarWall® in part, others were new to the concept. The networking over with, the main presentations got underway. Peter Strikwerda, MD of Corus Colors, welcomed the audience and opened the proceedings with an insight into how both Corus and CA group were approaching the sustainability agenda. Kevin Bygate, Director of Product Development for Corus Colors, then set the scene as to why Corus and CA Group were so well aligned and had teamed up to help bring this particularly innovative venture to the market. The over-riding reason being a common understanding for the need for better performing buildings for future generations. Then it was the turn of Brian Watson, Commercial Director for CA Group, who took the audience through how SolarWall® works and the numerous benefits it can bring to a building. What struck me here was the amount of independent third party evidence which backed up the claims being made by the speaker. Reports by BSRIA, Battle McCarthy and the Swavesey report emphasised the benefits which SolarWall® delivers in terms of both energy savings and renewables (costs, percentage achieved etc.) The case studies presented at the end of the presentation also successfully demonstrated this. As I looked around the room I was greeted by the sight of an audience captivated by what they were hearing, the vast majority leaning forwards in concentration.
After presentations by Jaguar Land Rover, who are using SolarWall® on the nearby JLR Academy, and a short Q and A session, the audience were afforded the opportunity to see the system first hand and witness the energy savings it has bought to date, live, through monitoring equipment installed at JLR. The proof is in the pudding as they say. Listening to feedback on the way to the Academy, the information delivered so far had obviously been well received, comments such as ‘I’m seriously impressed with the payback time’ and ‘I will be looking to put it forward as a generic spec for my future buildings…’ was a testament to that. The tour itself only served to confirm what people had heard about SolarWall® earlier. The improved air quality in the building itself was a comment I heard several times throughout the visit. This coupled with evidence of the energy savings for the building seemed enough to have many people seriously thinking about the bonuses a system such as SolarWall® could provide to their building stock.
All in all the day itself was a huge success with numerous follow up meetings being made with interested parties with a view to lock SolarWall® into a number of project specifications. And with so many positives it is hard to argue against the offering.
