Dublin Waste to Energy

AST E Wall Panels

Paroc provided the exterior and interior sandwich wall panels for the Covanta Dublin Waste-to-Energy (DWTE) building in Poolbeg Dublin, Ireland. The building was designed by the architecture firm Friis & Möltke, and its unique shape was inspired by conch shells.

The huge DWTE facility encloses the entire waste-to-energy process within a single structure creating a fascinating silhouette in the open landscape. The building is huge in size: 194 metres long, 128 metres wide and 52 metres tall. The designers still did not want it to be too distinctive and reflecting surroundings a moderate matt silver colour tone was selected for the whole façade. Due to the unique shape of the building, Paroc designed and produced specially shaped, very complicated panels for the project.

Conch shell shape was realized in close cooperation. For example, the rounded corner feature of the building presented particular challenges and we were asked to prepare our recommendations on how this could be achieved as well as a sample mock-up for inspection by the clients and their consultants. Finally, the trapezium was the shape adopted to achieve the large rounded corners. The trapezium panels diminish in size from bottom to top and segment around the corner to achieve the desired effect.

Other challenges included the west elevation of the building where the wall is at a 13° pitch from vertical and also at a 97.5° angle from horizontal. This meant that the square ends of the panel would not meet the I-beam supports. The solution here was to cut the ends of the panels with a small diagonal cut, resulting in each panel on the west elevation cut in the shape of a parallelogram.

"High quality, strength and fire safety of Paroc Panels are the well-known benefits on the market already", Export Manager Tom Österlund states.

The panel is also used internally to construct the internal firewalls and smokescreen partitions. Because of the complexity of the plant within the building, it was necessary that the plant would be installed before the external cladding. This also applied to the up to 50 m high the internal firewalls and smokescreen partitions designed to meet external loads until such time as the external walls are installed, and the internal walls only then exposed to internal loads.

The value of the panel order and the accessories was approximately EUR 2 million, and the plant will be operational in 2017. It will provide electricity for 80,000 homes and district heating for upwards of 50,000 homes out of 600 000 tons of waste.