The Sustainable Building Envelope Centre (SBEC), a center financed by the Low Carbon Research Institute (LCRI), Tata Steel and the Welsh Government, is currently into the sixth month of a three-year program launched for the development of innovative techniques to dissipate, trap and store solar energy.
Suitable solutions for the current and new buildings need to be devised to considerably reduce the effect caused by the carbon dioxide emissions. At the trade and industry open day conducted on September 27 2011, experts in the construction field got the chance to see the advanced technologies being developed and listen to the advancements in the designing and building of low to zero carbon buildings.
The current technologies being investigated are based on the available core technologies of photovoltaics and transpired solar collectors with a vision to develop a complete energy system with functionality and feasibility better than that of the sum of its components. These systems are designed to fulfill specific building typologies and sector application.
For instance, transpired solar collectors, which are air heating systems using the solar energy to heat fresh, outdoor air, can generate 400 MW/m2 annually but only 250 MW/m2 can only be utilized. The SBEC is finding methods to store and convert the excess heat being generated into useful energy. The center is studying capture and store techniques by deploying them into actual life demonstration projects. One such demonstration project is the SBEC building itself, which features the phase change material, thermoactive ceiling and flooring, photovoltaics and transpired solar collectors to decrease energy requirement and optimize the utilization of available renewable energy.