Six years in the making, the sustainably built £5 million Belgrave Health Centre in Leicester needed a high performance, durable roofing membrane to support the building’s solar photovoltaic system. With superior life cycle performance, British Board of Agrément (BBA) certification and a 20 year guarantee – the Evalon® V single ply membrane from ICB proved the perfect solution.
Designed by architects The Design Buro for NHS Leicester City, the state-of-the-art Belgrave Health Centre incorporates three GP practices and serves up to 30,000 patients. Built with the environment in mind, a target was set for a minimum of 12% renewable energy, or 29,656 kWh, to be generated by the building itself. To achieve this, the architects integrated the use of a high performance rooftop solar system.
To create the watertight roof whilst enabling easy installation of the solar panels, The Design Büro specified the world renowned alwitra ® Evalon® V single ply membrane and ICB solar fixing system.
Approximately 1,000 square metres of Evalon® V was installed by Licensed alwitra® contractor Torclad, a leading Midlands based design-led specialist roofer and cladder. The unique membrane delivers exceptional waterproofing qualities and can be fully adhered using a range of special adhesives or mechanically fixed.
To allow easy attachment of the solar panels onto the roof, without the need for extra ballast or penetration of the roofing membrane, the ultralight ICBSOLAR fixing system was the obvious choice. By taking into account the abilities of EVA roofing membranes, it enabled the compatible elements to bewelded directly to the Evalon® V membrane for a faster and more cost effective installation.
To make future specification and installation even easier for architects and contractors, ICB now offers a single ply membrane and power generating photovoltaic cells in one homogenous product – Evalon® Solar. Literally electricity on a roll, it is the ultimate green solution and can produce up to 20% greater output than common crystalline type panels whilst waterproofing the roof in one easy installation.
Now complete and open to the public, the Belgrave Health Centre is the seventh health centre to be built by Leicester LIFTCo – as part of the NHS Lift initiative – and at a total cost of almost £40 million. Thanks to the single ply membrane and solar fixing system from ICB, it will provide much-needed community and medical services under one watertight roof for years to come.
