The use of renewable energy in the building sector is today dominated by the application of solar domestic hot water and PV systems in single-family houses. In order to significantly increase the use of renewable energy in the building sector, concepts have to be developed for large buildings. In these buildings high fractions of the energy demand can only be met with renewable energy sources, when the façade is used for energy conversion in addition to the roof. This is especially true for buildings with a small roof area compared to the floor area (“high-rise buildings”) and for existing buildings which generally have a higher energy demand than new buildings. Therefore the main focus of the project is to convert facades of existing “high-rise buildings” into multifunctional, energy gaining components. This goal will be achieved by:

• development of integrated building concepts, suitable for a major share of the high-rise building stock, which can be characterised as the most cost-effective combinations of existing and/or newly developed components;
• development of new multi-functional façade components which combine standard features and the use of renewable energy resources;
• development of new business and cost models which consider the entire life cycle of a building and which incorporate the benefits of reduced operating costs and greenhouse-gas emissions;
  a decision support tool will help the planners to find the best integrated building concept.

The new components will in particular profit from the application of nano-structured coatings and films which will enhance their performance and durability due to antireflective, anti-soiling and seasonal shading functionality.

In order to achieve a successful development and implementation of these new technologies and concepts European key actors from construction industry and energy research have agreed to collaborate within this project.

The project results will be an important support for the European technology platforms ECTP, ESTTP and PV-platform in which the project partners have a leading role.

The project started at 1st of October 2008 with 27 partners. The duration is 4 years and the total budget of the project is 10'726'412 €.