At the beginning of June, representatives of South Bohemian municipalities had the opportunity to visit the brand new demonstration centre for the use of renewable energy sources in Stegersbach, Austria. A few hours away, the village in southern Austria is a popular centre for active recreation. The local hotels attract visitors with thermal baths and landscaped golf courses. Now the village of nearly three thousand also has a new technical attraction – a building called solar.one, which is interesting not only for its novel and modern architecture, but also for its technical design and its mission to be an educational and demonstration centre for the use of solar energy.
A delegation of eighteen mayors, representatives of Local Action Groups and other interested parties had the opportunity to have a detailed tour of the centre, which is built as a so-called Plus Energy Building, i.e. a building that produces more energy than it consumes for its operation. It generates both electrical and thermal energy not only from rooftop photovoltaic panels, but also from cells in the windows and glass walls. The electricity is used for sector coupling for e-mobility (charging e-vehicles) whereas power2heat will be coupled, utilising the activated building core (heat exchanger system). The building is also equipped with monitoring equipment (temperature and presence monitoring) as well as a load and flexibility management software to ensure all processes run smoothly and are coordinated.
The advantage of this centre is the possibility to see various technologies from different manufacturers in live operation and to directly compare their technical parameters, advantages and disadvantages. The aim of solar.one is to highlight new ways of using locally produced energy, how it can be shared, managed and ultimately saved.
The excursion took place within the international project CSSC Lab on 9 June 2022.
