Progress on new energy technologies and smart building materials adapted to the climate

The Eurecat technology centre is a member of the European iClimaBuilt project consortium which is developing advanced energy technologies for insulation and energy harvesting and storage in buildings and new smart building materials which can adapt to a diversity of climates. It is showcasing all these breakthroughs at Smart City Expo 2023 in Barcelona this week.

“The energy materials and technologies implemented will enhance performance and thermal comfort along with air quality with functional solutions in buildings,” says Frederic Clarens, director of Eurecat’s Waste, Energy and Environmental Impact Unit. “The new laboratories’ flexibility will also foster the design and assembly of fully customised, flexible, modular and removable technical systems to help towards the transformation of the construction industry to meet European Union objectives.”

iClimaBuilt is also building an Open Innovation Test Bed platform available to the industry for designing, developing, testing and validating nanotechnologies, advanced materials for energy saving and emission reduction and services for industrial environments. These living labs are sited in a number of European regions to promote nearly zero-energy buildings (nZEB).

Eurecat has set up two demonstrator living labs in Manresa and Amposta where businesses can test out various materials and components for façades and monitor them in real time.

CRC Llavor Building, a sustainable architecture demonstrator building

The recently completed Climate Resilience Centre Llavor Building in Amposta is a two-storey, sensorised nearly zero-energy building based on intensive use of sustainable and recycled materials. The building enables full-scale new building envelope technology testing and is ideally positioned with one façade fully exposed to the wind and another to the sun.

It is a sustainable architecture design using wooden frames and dry construction techniques which make it highly versatile and mean it can be dismantled and reused in the future.

Open call for SMEs to test materials on building façades

The iClimaBuilt consortium has also announced an open call for projects looking to test their materials for façade or indoor applications addressed to small and medium-sized enterprises and European players in the construction and building envelope materials industry along with small consortia.

Proposals can be submitted until 30 December and Eurecat will be one of the organisations offering testing and infrastructure services to the selected project to scale up their designs and technologies into innovations for the market.

The project will fund 70 percent of the cost of the selected projects which will be awarded between €50,000 and €150,000. The call has a total budget coming to €1.15 million and the projects submitted must have a lifespan of no more than 9 to 10 months.

iClimaBuilt will choose materials and designs anchored in a circular economy approach which factors in the potential environmental, economic and social impact across the entire value chain.

The iClimaBuilt consortium, coordinated by the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), is backed by Eurecat’s Water, Air and Soils Unit, Waste, Energy and Environmental Impact Unit, Product Development Unit and Consulting Department.