ALGAVOLTAICA seeks to develop a panel with algae for façades, so that it integrates nature into cities, producing energy and food, such as spirulina, considered a superfood, and bringing climatic benefits to buildings thanks to its shading system.

The panel will be equipped with an interface where the user can monitor the health of the algae and energy production, and with a battery that can accumulate the energy generated.

In addition, to make the panel as customisable as possible and adapt it to the needs of each consumer and environment, its design will be parametric and its parts will be produced through digital fabrication, including 3D printing.

The intrinsic objectives of the project are, apart from producing green energy, to decarbonise urban areas thanks to a façade system that can optimise the capacity of algae to transform CO2 into oxygen, to promote research into new sources of energy production and to encourage the production of supernutrients in urban areas.

ALGAVOLTAICA is promoted by SOLARTYS, the Spanish Association for the internationalisation and innovation of solar companies, with the participation of Barcelona Creativity & Design Foundation, Noumena Design Research Education, Ketter Batteries and IAAC, the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia. The total cost of the project is 215,409 €, of which the State and the European Union will contribute 168,411 €. Barcelona Creativity & Design Foundation will develop tasks of dissemination and visibility of the results, as well as networking and search for partners to increase the Technological Maturity Level.

It has the support and funding of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism, as well as the European Union through the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, within the programme of Support to AEIs to contribute to improving the competitiveness of Spanish industry.