Würth and TOGE win Environmental Award 2023
With the unrelenting drive for more sustainable energy, the practicalities of installing heavy photovoltaics on roofs never designed for such weights has been a considerable bump in the road, sometimes requiring entirely new roofs to be created and installed at a carbon cost. Enter, REINFORCE AC…
The Baden-Württemberg 2023 Environmental Technology Award in the “Material Efficiency” category has been given to the Würth Group’s REINFORCE AC product. The system – a joint development by Würth and TOGE Dübel – allows aerated concrete roofs to be subsequently reinforced so that they have up to 80% more load-bearing capacity.
“Load-bearing roof surfaces are a basic prerequisite for equipping buildings with photovoltaic systems – and therefore important for the energy transition,” says State Secretary Dr. Andre Baumann. “REINFORCE AC from Würth ensures that roofs can be upgraded with little effort.”
AT THE AWARDS (left-to-right): Hans-Peter Trehkopf (Head of Construction Site Project Management at Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG), Sibylle Hepting-Hug (Head of the Climate, Sustainability, Resource Efficiency, Circular Economy Department at the Baden-Württemberg Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector), Andreas Gerhard (Managing Director of Würth subsidiary TOGE Dübel GmbH & Co. KG), David Röck (Engineer at Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG) and Nikolai Sklarov (Engineer at TOGE Dübel GmbH & Co. KG). (PIC CREDIT: unger+ Kreative Strategen / Jan Potente)
THE PROBLEM:
Why it’s difficult to install photovoltaics on aerated concrete roofs
The installation of photovoltaic systems on existing roofs clearly promotes energy transition and avoids new land consumption in the process. But the systems are heavy.
Industrial buildings particularly, which are 25 years old or older, often have roofs made of aerated concrete, and their load-bearing capacity is not designed for the installation of a PV system. Until now, these roofs had to be dismantled and reconstructed in some cases, using a more stable building material, such as concrete or steel. This procedure resulted in several tonnes of construction waste and newly produced concrete.
THE SOLUTION:
Distributing the load across the roof surface
With REINFORCE AC, Würth Group has developed a system where the load can be distributed across the roof surface. This is possible using screws and a reinforcing mortar that is pressed into the air capillaries of the aerated concrete. While the screws already support the existing reinforcement of the aerated concrete, they are used to anchor GRP or aluminium rods to the underside of the roof. They serve as additional external reinforcement and bending tensile reinforcement. This allows up to 80% additional load-bearing capacity to be placed on the roof. REINFORCE AC was developed together with Toge Dübel GmbH & Co. KG, a subsidiary of the Würth Group, at the Reinhold Würth Innovation Centre CURIO.
IN PRACTICE:
DIBT approval expected by summer 2024
The solution is already available on the market; projects receive approval in individual cases (ZiE) and general building authority approval from the German Institute for Building Technology (DIBT) is expected by summer 2024.
“The special thing about our reinforcement solution is that it can be easily realised retrospectively and during operation,” says Thomas Klenk, Managing Director of Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG for Purchasing, Product, Marketing and Research & Development. “This saves companies considerable costs because they don’t need a new roof. The system also conserves resources because the individual product components can be completely recycled.”
