Yesterday we visited GreenBuilding 2011 in Verona, which was held in conjunction with the much more prominent SolarExpo.
The following are some highlights of the products presented in this 2011 edition.
The focus of SolarExpo in Verona is renewable energy, particularly photovoltaics, in all its conceivable forms. Manufacturers and importers of photovoltaic systems – many Chinese – take over about half-dozen exhibition halls.
Our intention in going to the expo was to see what new systems of integration are on the market, from a designer’s point of view. From what we saw, the photovoltaic sector has definitely started pushing past the technical hurdles of construction and installation to present some very beautiful PV panel designs. Understand what possibilities are available to us is important in the design phase of a project in order to present a fully integrated concept, instead of a design with some PV’s added to it later.
Of greater interest to us was the GreenBuilding pavilion, where they concentrated all the exhibitors of products related to the sustainability of buildings and energy saving. Green Building Council of Italy had a very strong presence here, with its own booth and several sponsor companies boasting their logo. One could say that this was GBC Italia’s attempt to counter the very popular Klimahouse sponsorship by CasaClima in Bolzano, however it was still evident that GBC is in the beginning phases of its marketing campaign in Italy.
The first of the two products that we wanted to present to you today was ‘Wall Up’, a system consisting of vertical overlapping plant vessels made with extruded aluminum profiles.
The second product we found particularly interesting was ‘Off-Grid Box’, an all-in-one that combines all the elements of a normal power station pre-assembled into a single container. The module includes:
- Phytoremediation unit;
- Rain water storage unit;
- Electricity unit (for photovoltaic or wind power);
- Hydrogen (electrolyzer etc.) unit.
- Solar thermal unit.
Unfortunately, the staff was a bit overwhelmed, and their website, offgridbox.it, is currently under construction. We do not know how to provide more information at the moment, but we hope to have the opportunity to explore the product in the future.
