The municipal government of Erlangen, Germany demonstrated
their commitment to the use of renewable energy by incorporating
the SolarWall®
air heating system into their city hall building. The
placement of the paneling, which is on the front of the complex, is a
visual affirmation that the municipality is adhering to the “Green
Heat” objectives set out by the European Union.
Erlangen City Hall
Background
The municipal government of Erlangen was designing a new city hall building, and as with most municipalities now, energy conservation and lowering the operating cost component associated with energy usage in the city’s buildings were major considerations. The intention was to include renewable energy in the building, and the architect investigated different technologies to determine what could best be incorporated into the design of the complex. For the architect, the visual appearance of the building was of paramount importance, but it was also essential that there be no ongoing maintenance issues. The SolarWall technology was selected for a variety of reasons; in addition to its ability to deliver sizable energy and CO2 savings, the system is maintenance free, and has no moving parts. This was an extremely important consideration because the solar paneling was going to be mounted well above ground-level, and would therefore not be easily accessible after construction was completed.
Solution
The architect incorporated 1600ft2 (150m2 ) of SolarWall panels into the high-rise office building between the 6th and the 14th floor. The bold design is extremely eyecatching, and manages to fulfill both the esthetical requirement, and the practicality component in terms of heat generation. The system is used on average about 60 hours a week, and preheats 3000 cfm of ventilation air that is used in the office building. In terms of emission reductions, this one solar system eliminates almost 30 tons of CO2 emissions each year!
ErlangenCityHall_Y05_SolarWallCaseStudy(PDF)
