The building sector accounts for around 40 percent of Switzerland’s energy consumption. Residential and non-residential buildings are therefore an important starting point for reducing energy consumption and achieving climate goals. The country has one million buildings that are either poorly insulated or not insulated at all, and large-scale energy renovations are necessary to rectify this. It is essential to equip the buildings with good thermal insulation, and materials such as mineral wool insulation panels are commonly used for this purpose.
One very promising new insulation material is aerogel. It is very porous, which gives it an insulating effect that is up to two-and-a-half times greater than that of conventional insulation boards. However, since aerogel is generally comparatively expensive, it is mainly used for special applications, for example where conventional boards cannot be used for structural reasons. Now a new aerogel product is raising hopes that in the future this insulation material could be used competitively in all buildings.
The solution dates back to 2009, when Spanish materials scientist Daniel Sanz Pont began his doctoral work at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, later continuing at the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. There, the scientist used research funds to further develop the material so that it could be economically sprayed onto walls. The solution was tested on a house in the Alpine region, in a pilot project supported by the Federal Office of Energy and the Swiss Climate Foundation.
In 2019, Sanz Pont founded the ETH spin-off Aeroskin Tech AG. The company wants to set up pilot production for the new aerogel insulation material in Switzerland and launch the product on the market before 2026. The business model is based on producing the insulation material from construction waste. This would be a perfect example of a circular economy because the aerogel insulation material could itself be recycled at the end of its life cycle and used to produce new insulation materials.
Aeroskin Tech AG
