When most of the people think about renewable energy sources and buildings, they often refer to something that is added at a later stage and not fully integrated with the building, and in most of cases the general perception of photovoltaic (PV) is not exactly of an aesthetically attractive technology to be used in our cities. For these reasons, BIPV market is coming up with multifunctional solutions, where PV modules become technical elements of the building envelope. This also meets the need of differentiation of the PV market, struggling towards customization and specialization of the products in order to respond to the stronger and stronger competition coming, e.g. from China.
SBskin aims to address the needs of:
- Reducing energy consumptions of buildings from non-renewable sources, at sustainable costs;
- Optimizing energy performance of buildings, also through the improvement of building envelope products for their use in any climate area;
- Providing new solutions for Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV), in line with PV market trends - that are more and more oriented towards products diversification - through novel multifunctional solutions with architectural value;
- Promoting 3rd generation PV technologies, DSC (Dye-sensitized Solar Cells) and OPV (Organic PhotoVoltaics), and in the near future PSC (Perovskite Solar Cells), able to overcome the limits of first generations PV panels, but that up to today did not find widespread applicability;
- Provide different choices to building designers and owners on new ways to reduce building energy consumption and produce renewable energy.
SBSkin’s products arise from the scientific activity carried out for some years by the research team at the Department of Architecture of the University of Palermo and aimed at the performance optimization of the light-capturing elements of building envelopes, in order to use them for the construction of sustainable and translucent building envelopes, even in temperate and hot climate contexts2. This work led to the design and technological definition of translucent glass block components that are precast, dry-assembled and prestressed, enabling outdoor installation even in high-rise buildings.
The company will develop and commercialize three product lines:
- “Energy”: translucent, prestressed, and dry-assembled panel made of:
- Standard glass blocks, for outside installations – GBpanel;
- High-insulating glass blocks modified through a plastic thermal belt (ThermoGB), for outside installations - ThermoGBpanel;
- “Solar”: translucent, prestressed, and dry-assembled multifunctional PV component made of:
- DSC-integrated glass blocks (SolarGB), for outside installations - SolarGBpanel;
- DSC-integrated glass blocks, also modified through a plastic thermal belt (ThermoSolarGB), for outside installations - ThermoSolarGBpanel.
In order to fully exert their potential of producing solar energy efficiently, SBskin’s PV-Integrated glass blocks need to be primarily used for the façades or the roofs of large buildings such as office/commercial buildings or condominiums. Being this the initial focus of the company, its final customers are building owners and real estate developers who are not only the planners of building but also its owners. So as to provide attractive proposals to them, one of the most important things for SBskin is to create a robust relationship with those (Decision Makers & Influencers) able to participate in the planning phase in which overall outline is designed and the decision of employing SBskin’s product is made. Such influencers for SBskin are prominent architects and real estate developers. Besides, contractors need to be informed about how to deal with our products.
By approaching and communicating with these influencers, the advantages and the innovative elements of SBskin’s products compared to other products or materials for exterior wall will be explained, in order to motivate them to incorporate SBskin’s products into the planning of their next proposals. In order to leverage the Italian origin of SBskin connections with Italian architects and real estate developers have already been developed and first pilot sites have been individuated. At the same time, while cooperating with them mainly in Italy, SBskin will approach other global partners, starting from the advanced countries in terms of solar energy generation, such as Germany, Spain, France, USA, Japan and China as well as high potential countries such as United Arab Emirates.
