Large Solar Façade Installed with New Fastening System

A LARGE FACADE solar panel system has been completed at Fenecon, a German-based energy and energy storage business.

Solar power is being generated from the façade and rooftop arrays at one of the company’s new production sites in Iggensbach (Bavaria).

As a specialist in energy storage, Fenecon developed a modern monitoring and energy management system for PV systems and energy storage, able to switch loads depending on the state of charge. The operating system, called FEMS, has been offered as open source software since 2016. It makes use of car batteries, housed in stationary systems, to store photovoltaic energy.

At the start of the year, the company opened a new site with development laboratories and offices.

Fenecon planned to generate a large proportion of the factory’s energy from renewable sources. It planned to make use of roof and façade surfaces integrating solar PV modules into the rear-ventilated curtain-wall facade.

“The advantage compared to roof and rooftop systems is that the winter yield of solar façades is higher while the electricity generation is also significantly improved in the otherwise less favourable months”, explains Benjamin Orths, International Product Manager of facade systems at the fischer Group of Companies.

New Fastening System

The façade system by fischer BWM securely fastens the vertical photovoltaic modules. It was developed with German module manufacturer Solarwatt to meet the project’s requirements.

Gaass Florian GmbH was awarded the contract to carry out the work on the façade.

In total, 552 Solarwatt vision GM 3.0 style glass solar modules were installed on an area of 1,050m, generating a peak output of 204.24 kilowatt peak (kWp).

Fischer supported the project managers with planning the facade and developed a project-specific fixing solution in partnership with Solarwatt.

“This resulted in a completely secure system suitable in any area such as residential, office and commercial construction, as long as there is an anchor substrate”, Benjamin added.

“With our substructure for PV systems, pre-sealed surfaces can be used and existing façades can be utilised to generate renewable energy”.

The design avoids visually unappealing elements such as insertion tracks and brackets, by fastening the solar panels with clasps, keeping joints to a minimum.

While the parts of the facade not used for solar energy feature an insulated cassette façade, the PV modules are anchored into the supporting steel structure by a substructure.

Vertical carrier profiles serve as a base structure for the horizontal PV clasp profiles, which were fastened to the vertical profiles with drilling screws. The PV modules were then hooked into the open C-profile of these horizontal elements with the premounted clasps attached to the back.

Benjamin Orths said, “We made quick progress thanks to pre-mounting the clasps with special screws that precisely fit the horizontal profile”.

The size (1780 x 1052 x 40mm) and weight (25.5kg) of the PV modules required calculations to take into account the weight and wind loads as well as regulatory requirements.

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