Pholtaire is a TU Delft spin-off that focuses on reducing the environmental footprint of high-rises. Such buildings have to comply with laws that fit the energy-neutral vision of 2050. However, their roofs are often unsuitable to support enough sustainable systems, e.g. PV-modules, to cover their energy consumption. Therefore, placing such systems on facades might become the newest trend in the construction industry.
Pholtaire designs an innovative, patent-protected, facade-integrable solar chimney, able to capture solar energy more efficiently than commercial systems. Water-cooled PV-modules, housed in a glass envelope, convert sunlight into heat and electricity. Standard PV-modules lose this heat to the atmosphere. In this concept, the heat energy can passively support the building’s HVAC and hot water systems. In addition, the glass envelope is an architectural tool making these façade-powerplants aesthetically beautiful.
Pholtaire has received the Business Development ticket from the TTT-CT program, which allowed Pholtaire to advance in business and team development. In addition, we envision that the Proof of Concept ticket can help realize the façade-integrable ‘PV-Chimney’ pilot for an existing building.
The next step is to validate the concept and quantify the performances and benefits. Discussions are happening for demonstration projects at existing buildings in The Hague and Delft.