Successful start of pilot project for energy self-sufficient air dome

Opens up exciting new area of Building Integrated Organic Photovoltaics (BIOPV) that perfectly suits its flexible, lightweight solar films.

Dresden, Germany — 14 January 2015 – Heliatek, the global technology leader in the field of organic photovoltaics, has successfully installed its solar film, HeliaFilm®, on a PVC-based membrane air dome in Berlin, Germany. This opens up a new area of application for BIOPV, building on the company’s pioneering work with glass and concrete.

The project was implemented together with PARANET Germany, a leading provider of air domes and an important industry partner. PARANET is producing air domes for sport, events or emergency accommodations supporting humanitarian aid missions. The size of the air domes varies from 18 x 18 meters up to 200 x 100 meters.

The HeliaFilm® has been affixed with an integrated mounting on the outer shell on 50 square meters, in 2 x 2 meter squares. With a total electrical output of 1,4 kWp, the current project should provide about 5 percent of the annual energy demand of the air dome.

The long-term goal of the cooperation is the ability to set up air domes without any external power supply. Next steps will be the extension of the covered area on the air dome, adding energy storage devices and appropriate control systems. To be totally energy self-sufficient, an air dome might need only a quarter of the totally available surface area covered with Heliafilm®.

HeliaFilm® is perfect for this application because it is ultra lightweight, flexible, and very effective at harvesting solar energy under real world conditions. Compared to standard solar technology the film from Heliatek is less susceptible to temperature changes and orientation to the sun.

Mr. Wowra, Managing Director of PARANET Germany comments: “With Heliatek’s solar films, we will finally be able to offer our customers energy self-sufficient air domes in the future. It was not easy to find a flexible, industry solution for the application on PVC membrane. We are really pleased about the realization of the first project in Berlin together with Heliatek.”

Combined with HeliaFilms, PARANET air domes will be energy self-sufficient to a large degree and thus make these air domes an absolute novelty. The market launch is planned for 2016.

With PARANET Germany, Heliatek extends its network of renowned industry partners to the area of PVC membrane, thus strengthening the company as a world-leader in the production and commercialization of solar film.

“The addition of PVC membrane to our material portfolio is a major step in implementing Heliatek´s marketing strategy,” states Dr. Thomas Bickl, VP Sales & Business Development. “After the successful market start of HeliaFilm® with building materials such as glass and concrete in 2014, we can now serve the PVC membrane segment with PARANET as a renowned partner.“

Heliatek will present the variety of applications at the trade show BAU in Munich on their booth 241, hall B2. The world´s leading trade show for architecture, materials and systems takes place from the 19th till the 24th of January, 2015 in Munich, Germany.