ARTICLES LABELLED WITH TAG energy

Economic progress inevitably brings increased demand for electric energy. In a historical context, coal-fuelled growth in the 19th century, oil facilitated the expansion of the global economy in the 20th century and data is stoking today’s economic progress. Data centres are the most rapidly growing segment of real estate and operating them requires an enormous amount of energy. Janusz Gutowski, CEO AXI IMMO Services at the AXI IMMO Group highlights the key issues around data centres’ demand for energy and explains what the alternative sources of energy for the sector are. 

The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) has provided a loan worth €10 million to Garanti BBVA Consumer Finance. The funding will support residential investments in energy improvements and resource efficiency. 

Warburg-HIH Invest Real Estate GmbH has kicked off the process of converting its European real estate portfolio to green energy. The Hamburg-based investment manager successfully implemented the new energy supply for the LEED Platinum-certified White House office building in the Hungarian capital of Budapest in partnership with operating costs expert Westbridge International AG. The move will cut the building’s carbon emissions by just under 2,700 tonnes within the next three years. The fully let building is part of an open-ended special alternative investment fund (AIF) managed by Warburg-HIH Invest.

The latest Property Talks event, organised virtually by RICS Hungary, focused on renewable and alternative energy sources and their role in the built environment. Eight real estate experts shared their insight on this topic in the form of six presentations and one panel discussion.

The SES-operated shopping centre Weberzeile located in Ried, Upper Austria, now generates its own environmentally friendly solar power, which is also the case at SES shopping centre Murpark in Graz. Last week, SES Spar European Shopping Centers commenced operation of a 520-kWp photovoltaic rooftop installation, which produces approximately 500,000 kilowatt-hours of clean electricity per year for its own use and reduces CO2 emissions by 128 tons. The photovoltaic system installed atop Weberzeile is the largest to be mounted by SES to date and is the benchmark for the installation of solar power systems on the roofs of other SES shopping centres throughout Austria.

Westbridge Advisory International AG, the international entity of operating cost optimizer Westbridge Advisory, has converted a portfolio of six office buildings for Union Investment in Poland to green electricity. By bundling the entire supply with a single utility and the switch of the entire portfolio to green electricity, it was possible to reduce CO2-emissions by roughly 7,600 tons. The properties, located in Warsaw, Wroclaw and Poznan, have a total rental area of around 155,000 sqm and an aggregated annual electricity consumption of 25 gigawatt-hours.

The LivinnX Kraków student residence, developed by Golub GetHouse, has signed an agreement with Tauron, which includes the purchase of electricity obtained entirely from renewable sources, i.e. hydroelectric power plants and wind farms. LivinnX will use the electricity offered as part of the EKO Premium product, which is the only solution in Poland to have a Green Energy Sale Guarantee, confirmed by the Polish Association for Energy Certification.

Prologis announced a successful pilot with Platio, a Hungarian start-up that provides aesthetic and space-saving renewable energy systems by integrating high-performance solar cells into sidewalk paving elements made of recycled plastic. Prologis Park Budapest-Harbor has become the first logistics park in the world to integrate this green technology into its daily operations.

Skanska’s commercial development business unit in Central Eastern Europe will be the first developer worldwide to cover office buildings with semi-transparent perovskite solar cells on a commercial scale. Saule Technologies will be the technology provider. The initial implementation tests are planned for 2018 in Poland.

Buildings account for over 40% of energy consumption in Europe, of which   around 75% are not energy efficient. This illustrates the importance of obtaining sustainable development certificates for both newly-developed and existing buildings. Their energy efficiency is assessed based on modeling and energy simulations. However, so far, there has not been any analysis regarding the actual energy consumption of a building: what is the impact of the implementation of innovative systems, appropriate management, specifications and the expected level of the users’ comfort on the building energy performance? These issues have been thoroughly addressed in the first study in Europe, conducted by Skanska, Go4Energy and Cushman & Wakefield, which analyses office buildings in Poland.