FLACHGLAS SACHSEN GMBH

Their core work

Flachglas Sachsen is a German flat glass manufacturer based in Grimma, Saxony, specializing in advanced glazing products for building envelopes. Their industrial expertise covers the production and development of high-performance glass components — including functional, thermally optimized, and energy-active façade elements. In H2020 projects they contributed as a manufacturing partner, bridging laboratory-scale material innovation and commercial glass production. Their work sits at the intersection of glass technology and building energy performance, making them a rare industrial player in EU research consortia focused on near-zero energy buildings.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their first H2020 project (2015–2017), Flachglas Sachsen was engaged at the material and technology development level — working on novel glass substrates and building envelope components, consistent with an industrial partner being pulled into R&D from a manufacturing base. By 2019–2024, their involvement had shifted toward complete, system-level building skin solutions: modular façades combining vacuum insulation, photovoltaics, thermal energy storage, and perovskite solar cells for non-residential buildings. The trajectory is clear — from glass material contributor to integrated energy-active envelope partner, tracking the broader market shift toward buildings as active energy systems.

Flachglas Sachsen is moving from component supplier toward system-integration partner for energy-active building envelopes, making them increasingly relevant for BIPV, nZEB retrofits, and modular construction consortia.

How they like to work

Flachglas Sachsen participates exclusively as a consortium member — never as coordinator — which is typical for an industrial SME that contributes manufacturing and product-development expertise rather than project management. Their 25 unique partners across 10 countries in just two projects indicates they joined large, multi-partner Innovation Actions, not tight bilateral collaborations. This profile suggests they work best as a targeted industrial partner that provides pilot production, prototype fabrication, or product validation within a larger research-and-demonstration consortium.

Despite only two projects, they have connected with 25 distinct partners across 10 countries — a broad footprint for a small company, reflecting the large consortia typical of IA-funded building energy projects. Their network is European in scope, almost certainly spanning German, Dutch, Spanish, and other Western/Central European building technology clusters.

What sets them apart

Flachglas Sachsen is one of the few flat glass SME manufacturers in Germany that has demonstrated willingness and capability to participate in cutting-edge EU building energy research — bridging industrial glass production and R&D-stage façade innovation. For a consortium that needs an industrial partner who can actually manufacture prototype glass components (not just model them), they offer a rare combination of production-floor reality and research-project experience. Their location in Saxony also connects them to Central and Eastern European supply chains, which can be valuable for consortium diversity requirements.

Highlights from their portfolio

• LaWin
  The largest single funding award (€483,875) and their entry into EU research, focused on a genuinely novel product category — large-area fluidic windows — that positions glass as an active building system rather than a passive barrier.
• POWERSKIN PLUS
  A long-duration Innovation Action (2019–2024) targeting non-residential nZEB buildings with a fully integrated modular façade system combining VIP insulation, BIPV, perovskite solar, and thermal storage — one of the most technically ambitious building-skin projects in H2020.