Renewable and solar solutions

Kingspan's Research and Development Centre in Kingscourt, Ireland, is focused on creating innovative and sustainable product solutions to meet the demands of today’s marketplace. The use of green roof technologies, for example, is continually growing as architects see the value in terms of biodiversity, storm water management, improved life expectancy and thermal performance of the roof as well as the enhancement of air quality by lowering CO2 levels. Kingspan Envirodek is a structural green roof system that is showcased at the Kingspan Energi centre and is now providing a sustainable solution to architects and developers across Europe.

Kingspan EnergiPanel is installed on the right hand, South/East elevation of this building. The rest of the building is finished in Kingspan Architectural Panels.

Key areas of research by Kingspan on construction in general and our own products/solutions in particular, have focused on sustainability, renewable energy resources, the reduction of running costs by building occupiers, and most importantly, lowering carbon emissions. As a result, a simple intelligent building system has been created of which Kingspan EnergiPanel can be an element. This panel is generally installed on the most southerly facing roof and/or wall elevations of a building for optimum efficiency. The external profile of Kingspan EnergiPanel absorbs solar radiation and increases in temperature. Low energy fans convect the warm air, through hollow crowns in the panel, into the building to reduce energy consumption for heating/cooling by up to 25%.

Kingspan believes that the use of roofs and walls to carry photovoltaic solar panels for the production of electricity will increasingly become a feature of the building of the future (featured by Kingspan in its Zero Carbon House and at its Energi centre). With this in mind the Kingspan PowerPanel will integrate power generation technology directly into Kingspan’s market leading composite panel offering, eliminating the need for separately mounted solar panels.

Kingspan is constantly developing new methods of recycling energy from solar and geothermal sources. Kingspan, under the Thermomax brand, manufactures a solar thermal panel for production of hot water for space heating and general use. The Thermomax product is some 30% more efficient than standard solar systems and this compliments Kingspan’s other solar panel offerings for heat and electricity generation.

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