Owens Corning installed an 11,000 Sq Ft SolarWall® on their Toronto manufacturing facility. A SolarWall® is basically a perforated covering installed over an existing wall. As air flows through the perforations and up the wall it is heated buy the sun. When the air gets to the top of the wall it is warm and drawn into the building for ventilation. They are best installed in buildings that require a large amount of fresh such as the manufacturing facility for Owens Corning. This wall creates the equivalent of 8 billion BTU’s of thermal energy per year.

A similar technology can be used on air tight buildings. A solid glass wall is built over a black wall creating an airspace. The bottom and the top of the black wall is open to the building allowing air to flow easily. These holes at the base of the wall allow cool air from inside the building to flow into the airspace. The air is heated as it travels up the wall outside the building but behind the glass. As the air is heated it naturally pushes up into the building. This type of technology can even be used on residential houses. Typically a damper is used to stop the air from circulating at night preventing a reversed flow. Residential kits are available for purchase. While this technology is uncommon today it has been used in the United States for over 100 years and is growing in popularity.

Link