Planterboard

surface green

Your starter

kit to try something new.

planterboard

Planterboard

Planterboard will make it possible to make any roof green

planterboard.com

Problem

Green roofs are difficult, costly and energy intensive to build and maintain

Green roofs are complicated and expensive

Green roofs are a specialist trade, are complicated to install and involve multiple processes and significant installation time

Green roofs require ongoing maintenance

Green roofs create maintenance problems of plant as well as drainage and water ingress into buildings

Green roofs are limited and cannot be retrofitted

Green roofs are limited to flat roofs, they can only go where they have been designed into the building structure and drainage

Green roofs are energy intensive to build

Green roofs typically rely concrete substrate which is energy intensive and counteracts the environmental benefits

The bigger problem

Addressing carbon pollution and heat island effects in cities

Energy used to cool and heat homes

Stand alone homes need more heating and cooling and

Heat Island Effect

Urban sprawl and lack of trees are causing temperatures to rise in cities

People don't want trees

"people generally did not want trees either in their front yards or around their house" Stephen Bali, Blacktown Mayor

The adjunct

problem

Solar Panel Waste

Lifespan of solar panels

Solar panels have a limited lifespan, we are approaching the end of life for the first big uptake in solar panels

What happens to used panels?

Currently millions of solar panels face the possibility of ending up in landfill

The opportunity

What if old solar panels were retrofitted and repurposed as green panels?

Solution Concept

Using standard components to create a different solution that suits any roof type

Existing solar panel framing and installation hardware

We can adapt off the shelf extrusions, brackets and installation methods

Plastic extrusion and built in irrigation ready to plug in

We can adapt from existing concepts of anti-erosion geo cell and conventional irrigation system

Appropriate plants & medium

Using appropriate plants and light-weight planting medium

Recycled solar panels

Standard Extrusions

Solution components

Standard solar fixings

planting medium

Appropriate plants

Geofactric

Erosion prevention

Standard irrigation

Planterboard Concept

standard aluminium extrusion from PV system

To water

water irrigation reticulation built in to panel

Concept section

Root barrier

Self supporting plastic extrusion with drainage cell built in

erosion control built into extrusion

to next panel

Irrigation Concept

U Form of Magnet with Half Shadow for Education Concept.

To regulator, timer and tap

water irrigation reticulation built in to panel

Connection hose links panels on the surface

Benefits of Planterboard

Planterboard offers both thermal comfort and benefits the environment

Increased thermal comfort with an insulating blanket for your roof

Your roof is shielded from direct solar radiation and can potentially prevent heat loss in winter, making your house more comfortable all year round

A carbon sink and a heat sink or your roof

Planterboard helps take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere where maximum solar energy tends to hit your house, it is you perosnal carbon harvesting plant

Improved aesthetics

There are many roofs where solar panels don't work because the orientation is not optimal, and unlike solar panels which are a standard size, Planterboard can be adapted to fit odd shapes and can also be used to dress off and frame solar arrays

Engineering Challenges

Planterboard does have engineering challenges but none are insurmountable

Decreasing the load

Metal roofs are typically designed to carry a live load of 25kg/m2. Solar panels already weigh 10-12 Kg per m2 leaving. This is possibly the biggest challenge - traditional green roofs weigh 100kg/m2

Plant Selection

Plant Selection is critical to get right, the plants obviously need to be hardy and tolerate high heat as well as frost

Maintenance and plant incursion into roof

Planterboard cannot create a maintenance problem in the roof

Watering

Any watering system needs to be automated and built into the product

Design Concept

How to turn a solar panel into a green panel

Retrofit not replacement

First and foremost I don't propose to replace solar panels with green panels

Removal and production

Redundant solar panels are removed in the course of replacement and taken for processing

Design

There are several alternatives to repurposing that require engineering input - including a system of existing readily available extrusion or creating a custom extrusion that enables soil to be retained

Planterboard Mission

To make green roofs simple, versatile, cost effective and readily available so anyone can have a green roof

How Planter board is a game changer

Fits any roof type and pitch

Using existing solar bracket systems Planterboard can be fitted to any roof type and pitch, unlike solar panels it does not need tilting frames and optimal solar exposure to work effectively

Platerboard is pre-fabricated including irrigation and plants

It comes as a unit and is quick and easy to install and comes with irrigation pre fitted not built from scratch on the roof like traditional green roofs

Easy to install and maintenance free

Planterboard can be installed by any

Market Analysis

US green roof market projected growth

US Green Roof Market

$1.4 Billion

Total Available Market

$100 M

Serviceable Available Market

$10 M

MARKET SHARE

Revenue

Projected Revenue in $Millions

150

100

Now

2022

2023

2024

2025

2026

2027

The Planterboard Market

These are our target customers.

Photo of Woman Carrying Dismantled Walking Stick

Builders and specialist installers

Solar PV installers already know what do to with these, its a familiar outer extrusion and since they don't need any electrical connection any tradesman can install them

Home owners and DIY

The panels are modular and can come in kits delivered directly to customers or via hardware stores and are easy to install, simply clip hoses together to complete

The Planterboard Market

An off the shelf solution ready for delivery

planterboard

surface green

planterboard

surface green

planterboard

Direct Competitors

Indirect Competitors

?????

Traditional Green Roofs

Solar PV systems

Roadmap

Find partners

Find engineering, production and distribution partners

Solve engineering challenges

Work through solutions to engineering problems

Documentation

Produce concept documents

Patent and trademark

Research and submit patent and trademarks

Future Roadmap

A brief description of where the company wants to go next.

2022

Launch Product and find partners

2025

establish world wide market

2030

dominant player

Meet the Team

Gardener with garden pruning scissors pruning climbing roses .

Mat

wants to create something

Engineering Partner

Chief Product Officer

Production

Chief Production Manager

Mat 0412074088

mat@ballastpoint.com.au

www.planterboard.com

Drawings required (in order of priority)

green roof made of Planterboard panels on a ballast point house
plan and section through a panel showing irrigation, plastic structure and extrusions, bracketing system
Planterboard installed to custom sizes to fit an unusual sized roof
Planterboard installed amongst solar panels dressing them off and otherwise integrated to show that it can visually improve a solar PV system
expand item 2 to show installation on different roof types including metal, tile, different pitches

Notes and feedback

I believe that the recycling / repurposing market for solar panels will be huge, and I love that this is a ‘double positive’ win for the environment. My main questions would be around the financial viability of using solar panels versus a traditional green roof structure.
[M Wilk] traditional green roof structure can only go on roofs that are concrete and purpose built so prohibitively expensive and for most people not something that they will have, and can’t be installed on any existing roof, so it’s a matter of making something possible that was not possible rather than competing on price - but yep that’s a great insight – and a great idea to put the cost of both – it would be factor 20 difference – although I don’t really have a supply cost for the panels but can estimate production.
It looks like you touch on that in the presentation, but it could be interesting to do a cost breakdown. I’d imagine your immediate challenge would be proving that the concept is technologically viable and testing different plant varieties to suit the structure/different environments.
[M Wilk] yep – so I have the technical knowledge but really the project cannot move forward without finding a partner who has more a background in plants
Would there be any council regulation around this type of thing?
[M Wilk] councils love green roofs.

Resources

https://www.prestogeo.com/products/soil-stabilization/geoweb-slope-protection/

https://www.prestogeo.com/design/soil-stabilization/geoweb-slope-support/

https://geosynthetics.net.au/geocells-stabilisation-erosion-control-retaining-walls/

https://www.geoproduct.pl/en/produkt/geosystem-s60s/

Extrusions available https://www.pailian-aluminium.com/industrial-aluminium-profile/anodized-and-powder-coated-aluminium-extrusions/aluminium-extrusion-for-solar-panel-mounting.html