Danish CONCERTO building: entry portal for COP 15 delegates

Brussels, Belgium: It is called the “VELUX House”, a new prototype low-energy roof top extension house co-funded by the CONCERTO programme and built at the Bella Center. It serves as the entry portal for more than 20,000 delegates who will visit the COP 15 conference in Copenhagen from 7th to 8th December 2009.

The VELUX HOUSE housing unit has been built based on the “Energibo” concept developed by VELUX, the MT Højgaard contractors and Green Solar City CONCERTO partners with very ambitious standards that go beyond class 0 targeted for 2020. The pre-fabricated building “Energibo” has a room heating demand according to the passive house standard and it uses solar heating and PV elements, is very attractive and available at reasonable cost so it can be devoted to social housing.

With the eyes of the world sharply focused on the discussions taking place in the Danish capital, no fewer than four CONCERTO communities clustered in and around Copenhagen are showing the way to a clean and sustainable energy future.

These pioneering communities are researching, developing and demonstrating the techniques and technologies which will be indispensible if the world as a whole is to get its energy use under control in the short timeframe which is now necessary.

Stenløse is a case in point. This new-build CONCERTO community in a Greenfield site about 35 km North West of Copenhagen houses around 2,000 inhabitants in ultra low-energy dwellings. Thanks to the high levels of energy efficiency, the community saves an estimated 1,600 tonnes of CO2 per year and generates a significant proportion of its energy supply locally, from renewable sources.

In order to achieve its aim of being a zero-CO2 city, Hillerød, another community located just 30km north of the Copenhagen talks, is implementing a number of pioneering measures, notably energy data collection in each dwelling in a development of 78,000m² of eco-houses. This permits accurate monitoring of patterns of consumption and targeted advice to residents and building users. Emphasis is on informing residents about how to maximise the efficiency of their energy use, to lower costs for themselves in terms of energy bills, and for the planet in terms of environmental damage.

The project which is underway in Helsingør not only directly benefits the largest number of citizens of any Danish CONCERTO city – around 7,000 individuals – but is also aiming to accomplish some of the most impressive improvements in energy performance. The targets set go well beyond the Danish national targets, which are already thought to be encouragingly ambitious. Indeed, while Denmark sets itself a target of 30% of supply from renewables by the year 2030, Helsingør’s target is twice as high at 60%. For energy efficiency, the Danish target is for a 9% increase by 2016, whereas Helsingør’s target is for an improvement of 30% by 2020. The impact in terms of emissions reductions if other communities would hasten to follow examples such as this is potentially huge.

Finally, flying the flag for Copenhagen itself is the Valby district where a rehabilitated industrial zone is home to both new built and retrofit developments where over 5,000 MWHper year of heat and power is generated from renewable sources, serving around 4,000 building users. Valby aims to reach the milestone of 20% less CO2 by 2015, five years earlier than targeted. And the COCERTO activities also support a large scale PV plan for Valby aiming at 15% electricity use from PV by year 2020.

All in all, the Danish CONCERTO cities are one reason for Danes to be proud of their efforts in sustainable energy, as they host over 60 world leaders and climate stakeholders.

Pictures from the Danish CONCERTO cities are available at

http://concertoplus.eu/DIRECTOR/PhotoGalery_Online_2009/CITIES/index.html

For more information please contact the CONCERTO Plus team:

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