new energy for growing communities - ecofys … energy for growing communities 7 preface the...

Almere

Ajaccio

Viladecans

Milton Keynes

New energy for growing communitiesThe cRRescendo sustainable building project

Read how leading EU municipalities made a significant step towards zero-carbon urban communities in turbulent economic times.

Emil ter Horst, Caspar Noach, Leendert Verhoef and Vera Haaksma

Almere

Ajaccio

Viladecans

Milton Keynes



Almere

Ajaccio

Viladecans

Milton Keynes



ISBN 9789082257601 | Horisun, Utrecht

Download: www.cRRescendo.net or www.horisun.com

4 cRRescendo

EC CONCERTO programme

cRRescendo is the largest sustainable building project,

that has been supported by the CONCERTO programme

of the European Union.

In a fast moving and developing modern world, energy

is a core factor of our daily life. We have become

dependent on the availability of energy, which has to

be produced in a sustainable and efficient manner.

The CONCERTO programme has supported local

communities in demonstrating actions that are both

sustainable and energy efficient. Increasing the use

of renewable energy sources and promoting energy

efficiency is not an easy task. The CONCERTO projects

aim to demonstrate the breakthroughs that can

be achieved by a fully integrated approach in high

performing communities.

The goals of CONCERTO (2005, 2007, 2010) were to

inspire an innovative energy policy on a European

level and to contribute towards creating an energy

independent Europe based on a vision of environmental,

social and economic sustainability. Now (2014) the

Smart Cities & Communities calls within Europe’s new

HORIZON2020 programme succeed the successful

CONCERTO programme. Having a closer look though

at the cRRescendo projects especially in Almere and

Milton Keynes, we see that CONCERTO has indeed

inspired these cities to compose the prelude to such a

smart city.

The municipalities Almere, Milton Keynes, Ajaccio and

Viladecans together with their partners and observers

completed these large, new, complex projects. These

municipalities reached new milestones and fulfilled

their ambitions in fantastic new or refurbished urban

environments. The results and lessons learned are

available to be shared with you. You are welcome to visit

our CONCERTO communities.

Emil ter Horst,

Horisun

Coordinator cRRescendo

Disclaimer: “The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.”

new energy for growing communities 5

Recommendation It is a pleasure for me to recommend this book to you.

The European cRRescendo project and the lessons

learnt described in this book are close to my heart.

I came to Almere 10 years ago.

Before that time I lived for a long time in Friesland,

where I fell in love with the typical Dutch panoramic

flat and wet pastures. Here in the province of Flevoland

I experience the same feeling for this polder landscape.

With views reaching to the horizon. Here in Almere my

family and I built our own sustainable dream house.

Almere is a new-town handmade by pioneers in the new

polder of Flevoland just decades ago. As a spin-off we

saw Europe’s youngest nature reserve emerge just in the

shadow of Almere: the Oostvaardersplassen, sometimes

nicknamed as the “Serengeti behind the dikes”.

In Almere en Flevoland one can have the best of

two worlds. You can live in the countryside near the

city or you can live in the city near the countryside.

cRRescendo has shown us now clearly that a smart

sustainable city needs this countryside (that my city

is blessed with) in order to achieve the future goal of a

zero-energy community.

As president of the Council of European Municipalities

and Regions I am proud that in the cRRescendo project

Almere and her twin city Milton Keynes, the Catalan

new-town Viladecans and the beautiful capital of

Corsica, Ajaccio, were the founding fathers of this

important project. But I am even more pleased by the

dissemination that is taken so serious in the project.

During the project already to the observer cities

Misterbianco, Sofia and San de Senart, but now the

results are shared with all European cities.

Just as in my own sustainable building experience I

was happy to learn so much from others who did the

same job before us, in the same way I am sure the

lessons learnt in cRRescendo will pave the way for other

European cities, north, south, east or west.

As Mayor I can tell you that though the cRRescendo

project formally has ended, it lives on in our cities. The

ideas have been embedded in our local policies, while

new projects in all four cities are on the way exceeding

the high ambitions of cRRescendo, sometimes even

by far. The concept of a smart sustainable city is

unstoppable.

In Almere the cRRescendo “icon” demonstrations

showed our citizens the road towards a zero-energy

city in 2025. Under the heading Growing Green Cities,

this “green” road may now be even accelerated by the

Floriade, hosted by Almere in 2022.

And finally, if you enjoyed the book, feel free to visit us:

the surprising near-carbon-free socially sustainable

Almere Columbuskwartier, the pleasant low-carbon

Vizion building in Milton Keynes, the sturdy energy-

positive community center in Ajaccio or the inspiring

smart school in Viladecans. They have been visited

by many people and delegations already but are still

waiting for you.

Annemarie Jorritsma, Mayor of the city of Almere.

President of the association of Netherlands municipalities (VNG). President of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR)

Left: Dissemination is taken serious in cRRescendo

Right: Icon projects such as the future Floriade will pave the way for a zero-energy smart Almere in 2022

6 cRRescendo


Preface

The cRRescendo project is about the sustainable

building of 3,290 houses, 75,093 square meters of public

and commercial buildings, 1,099 kWp solar PV panels,

8,337 square meters of solar hot water collectors in four

European cities and last-but-not-least carbon-saving

district-heating systems installed in two cities. There

was an overall carbon saving by cRRescendo of almost

30%, while this percentage more than doubles when the

effect of the district-heating in Almere is included.

The project shows how the Municipalities Almere (NL),

Milton Keynes (UK), Ajaccio (Corsica, FR) and Viladecans

(ES) have made a significant step towards zero-carbon

communities in turbulent economic times.

These cities overcame the bureaucratic hurdles,

introduced modern low carbon energy production

technologies and set new energy-saving standards

for the built environment. They worked with vision,

ambition, perseverance, know-how, and bravery. They

woke up the building industry. The cRRescendo project

also demonstrates how best to meet the citizens’ wishes

of living in comfortable, energy efficient homes in a

healthy and clean environment.

Despite concessions to the original ambition (due to the

recession) the project kept its promise to pave the way

towards a complete sustainable city after 2020.

Developing new and innovative neighbourhoods at this

scale is a local challenge of international importance,

and therefore supported by the European CONCERTO

programme.

The results are both visible and embedded in the

local community: in paradigm changing iconic

urban developments and game changing new ways

of producing energy; in lasting changes among

stakeholders in the building sector and integral

sustainable policies in our cities. But above all inspiring

urban environments have been built, while new projects

underway have surpassed even our ambitions.

It was an adventure for us to unravel impacts and

success factors. It was hard work to filter through the

project management system, with all the changes in

contracts, objectives, and people. And then there was a

mountain of information and a sea of deliverables.

This book will guide you through all aspects of the

development and the results of Europe’s largest urban

sustainable building project.

You can experience the content on three levels. The first

level and main structure concerns the chapters on the 4

cities: the design, implementation and users’ experience

of eco-buildings and low-carbon power plants. The

second level on spread pages in-between the chapters

will guide you through overlapping themes such as the

research, training and dissemination. The third level

addresses general lessons or specific quotes and tips of

key staff in doing their job. You will find these echoes of

10 years’ co-operation often in the margin or indicated

with an exclamation mark. [!]

We believe, to remain in the imagery of the CONCERTO

programme, that the achievements by cRRescendo

form a nice symphony. We invite you to play along with

the song lines in the book. Absorb the useful lessons

and the tools you deem fit, combine them with your

own tunes, and become even more sustainable than the

cRRescendo project.

Emil ter Horst, Caspar Noach, Leendert Verhoef and

Vera Haaksma (clock wise)

The power of heatMilton Keynes

2.1 Milton Keynes – the scene 32

2.2 A suite of sustainable projects 33

2.3 Vizion – iconic building as an urban landscape 35

2.4 Office of tomorrow - The Pinnacle 36

2.5 Combined heat and power generation 39

2.6 PV power plant on former bus station 42

2.7 Moving forward 44

Sustainable renovationAjaccio

3.1 Ajaccio – the scene 48

3.2 A suite of projects 50

3.3 Performance – occupant behaviour 54

3.4 Moving forward 551

2

3

Frame: Economics needs Replication 58

Towards zero carbon cityAlmere

1.1 Almere – a New Town 14

1.2 Opportunity for sustainability 15

— Sustainability: a matter of “Principles” 16

1.3 Mobilising civil servants, stakeholders and inhabitants 17

1.4 Almere Solar Island for a low-carbon district heating 20

1.5 A solar PV power plant dispersed over Columbuskwartier 22

— The certification scheme “Solar House” 23

1.6 Ecohouses and private commissioning in Noorderplassen West 26

1.7 Research on sustainability 26

1.8 Towards smart energy-neutral in 2025 28

Frame: From observer to doer 30

PreludeEC CONCERTO Program 04

Recommendation 05

Preface 07

Bridging the recession - cRRescendo summary 10

Frame: Sharing local learnings 46

learning

designing

connecting

inspiring

building

giving

AnnexesAnnex I

Realised cRRescendo projects 92

Annex II

People behind the projects 98

Annex III

Solar potential in Europe 100

Paving the wayViladecans

4.1 Viladecans – the scene 62

4.2 Delivering eco-buildings 64

4.3 Solar energy in Viladecans 67

4.4 Overcoming barriers – stepping forward 69

New energy for growing communitiesResults, lessons and recommendations

6.1 Four cRRescendo cities 84

6.2 Diversity of projects in the different communities 86

6.3 EU policy lessons 87

6.4 Local policy and project level lessons 88

6.5 The building sector lessons 89

6.6 Bridging recessions 90

4

5

6

The discovery of a sustainable communityColumbuskwartier

5.1 A learning history 74

5.2 The district Almere Poort 75

5.3 From simple idea to detailed plan 76

5.4 Getting a grip on sustainability 78

— Managing Columbus’ egg 81

Frame: Empowering the community 82

Frame: Checking the ambition 71

Frame: Sharing local learnings 46

10 cRRescendo

A turbulent decade: 2003-2012

The preparation of the cRRescendo project started in

2003. It was not the most ambitious project when it was

accepted in CONCERTO. But it promised to be impactful,

not only due to its size, but also due to the ambitious

smaller projects inside the project: the so-called

icons of sustainability. cRRescendo was embedded

in a completely new kind of policy, an integral way of

looking at sustainability. Policy inspired by the cradle-

to-cradle ideas.

Now, a decade later cRRescendo turned out to be

recession-proof, being one of the CONCERTO projects

with substantial impact.

cRRescendo is led by 4 main cities with 11 local partners.

The cities of Milton-Keynes (England, UK), Viladecans

(Catalonia, Spain) and Almere (Netherlands) are sub-

metropolitan New Towns while Ajaccio is the historical

capital of Corsica (France). There were three so-called

observer cities, Misterbianco (Sicily, Italy), Sofia

(Bulgaria) and San-de Senart (France), entitled to learn

from the results.

The cities are nicely dispersed over Europe, with

similarities and differences.

In the beginning the project was well on track, but in

2007 it became clear that the crisis in the American

mortgage market was also causing project developers

Bridging the recession cRRescendo summary

to be cautious in Europe. Nevertheless, first realizations

in Almere and Milton Keynes had started.

Through 2008 cRRescendo developments continued

in all four cities. In Almere many eco-houses had been

delivered and the building of Solar Houses had started.

In Milton Keynes the CHP had been realized. In Ajaccio

the renovation of houses was delayed. In Viladecans

the Daycare Centre was at the last stage of realization.

The building of houses in Viladecans was delayed and it

became clear that the recession had arrived in Europe,

especially in Spain.

At the end of 2008, the housing market crisis had a

deeper impact on the demos in UK than previously

thought. Since then the housing crisis became a global

financial crisis, with substantial consequences for

cRRescendo, especially in Milton Keynes and Viladecans.

It was promising that the urban development in Almere

and renovation activities in Ajaccio nevertheless had

continued as planned. In Almere the recession simply

arrived later.

cRRescendo convinced “Brussels” that only with a

substantial amendment was it still possible to realize

the original ambitions, while a prolongation of the

project was accepted to accommodate this. Alternative

demonstrations have been developed in the cities to

compensate for the possible loss of ambition in the

original project.

The world changed quite a bit from 2003-2012, with

02000

Dawn of the solar age

2003

CO2-neutral Sun City in Heerhugowaard: precursor to CONCERTO and cRRescendo.

2004

The German Feed-in Tariff boosts the PV market to a global cumulative installed capacity just above 1 GWp. The price for PV modules is 3€/Wp. China starts first PV mass production.

2005

started in 2005 and co-funded over € 175 Million to 58 cities in 22 projects in 23 countries.

2006

With 75% of the PV Market in Europe (heavily subsidized) the price does not go down enough in 2006, while cheap production in China is attracted.

4 €/Wp

2

0

2000 2006 2012

11bridging the recession

the mortgage crisis, financial crisis and real estate

crisis followed by economic downturn. However due to

the re-scoping cRRescendo could be still successfully

realised with the same overall high ambition.

In that same decade we also saw enormous

technological changes: in energy efficiency measures, in

renewable energy especially PV solar energy technology,

while last but not least the concept of smarting the

energy grid and smarting the city gained a foothold.

It was not possible to sail through these times and at

the same time contribute to those needed changes

to the max. As the sky was not the limit anymore,

the larger demonstrations were carried out realistic

ambitious, while the project’s overall ambition was

kept high or even higher in smaller icon projects. As the

price of PV solar energy was reduced drastically, this

promising technology for the built environment could

be kept easily “on-board”, while the concept of a smart

community could not be adopted overnight, but will be

explored in the decade beyond the project (2013-2022).

4 cRRescendo communities

Now, at the end of cRRescendo 10,000 people live in

modern, comfortable, healthy and energy efficient

homes due to the well-orchestrated sustainable

developments of the metropolitan areas of Almere,

Milton Keynes, Ajaccio and Viladecans.

In Almere (NL) two “Energy Rich” districts are part of

the cRRescendo project. In Almere the total reduction

in conventional energy consumption is 31%, in which

the high carbon reduction due to cogeneration in both

communities and green electricity in Columbuskwartier

is NOT included.

About 2000 new dwellings have been built in three

“Energy Rich” classes:

- eco-houses, built at least 10% more energy efficient

than the building standard;

- solar houses, with an energy performance 25% better

than standard;

- passive houses, having an energy performance 50%

better than standard.

Most cRRescendo dwellings in the district

Noorderplassen West are eco-houses. In this area some

private dwellings have PV systems, but the major solar

contribution is achieved by the Almere Solar Island

(opened June 2010).

For the first time homes in the Netherlands are heated

collectively with locally-generated solar energy. The

Almere Solar Island is an icon in the Almere landscape.

The way the island works is simple: water in the solar

collectors is heated by the sun. The heated water is

pumped directly into the low-carbon district heating

network that supplies heating and hot tap water to the

residential district Noorderplassen West. The Almere

Solar Island is the fourth largest solar collector field in

the world.

In the second cRRescendo district, Columbuskwartier,

about 500 solar houses and 103 passive houses have

been built. On these and other houses and buildings

in the district a total of 600 kWp PV panels have been

installed.

In realising its ambitious objectives, the heat for the

1,000 homes of Columbuskwartier comes from the

Diemen “Combined Heat and Power” (CHP) plant on

the other side of lake IJmeer. The connection of all

dwellings and buildings of the spanning district Poort

to the district heating system is fed by this CHP system.

A new pipeline connection from the “Diemen” plant

goes through the IJ-lake to Almere. The overall energy

supply is obtaining a 93% CO2 reduction not only for

Columbuskwartier but for the whole Poort district. In

support of that the energy company NUON is required

to deliver only green electricity in the Poort district.

Milton Keynes (UK) is centrally located in the UK, 70

miles North West of London. In Milton Keynes the total

reduction in conventional energy consumption is 30%,

in which the reduction due to the CHP is included (the

share linked to cRRescendo buildings).

The local programme, where a holistic approach to

urban design has been adopted, includes four separate

developments:

- Combined Heat and Power (CHP) with private wire

network;

- Enhanced building fabric in a residential and a non-

residential building;

- A large 165 kWp Photovoltaics (PV) system.

A successful component of the Milton Keynes project

has been the delivery of the CHP engine, connecting via

2007

Europe was leading the global PV production (4GWp) only in 2007.

The IPCC and Al Gore have jointly won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

2008

In Almere Columbuskwartier first houses are completed.

The U.S. Mortgage Crisis becomes a international financial crisis and is followed by a EU house-building crisis especially in Spain and the UK.

The huge world PV market share in Spain collapsed from 41% in 2008 to 1% in 2009.

Europe

China

Japan

Rest World

2009

Completion of the Pinnacle office and Vizion residential buildings in Milton Keynes

2010

Completion of the two Almere communities and the Solar Island.

12 cRRescendo

a private wire network up to many buildings in the city

centre. In 2012, the BREEAM “Excellent” rated Network

Rail Headquarters “Quadrant” development, comprising

38,000 sq.m. connected to the CHP system in Central

Milton Keynes. This expansion is a good indicator of the

confidence now being shown in the ability of the CHP to

deliver cost effective heat and power.

The Vizion complex is a high quality vertical mixed-

use development, which is loved by residents. The

development (2009) contains 441 apartments and

townhouses but also includes a large Sainsbury’s store

of approximately 10,000 m²and another 4,100 m2

commercial and retail units. The enhanced building

fabric was applied to raise the standard of the building

and its thermal characteristics far beyond national

standards. Heat, cooling and electricity are supplied by

the above CHP system.

The same applies to the Pinnacle, a high-quality

office with an element of mixed-use. The building is

performing well for the occupants. It is the first BREEAM

“Excellent” rated office development in Milton Keynes

and a winner of an Office Development Award for

Sustainable Achievement. The Pinnacle accommodates

three commercial offices and several smaller retail

units, with over 19,000-m2 commercial space.

Finally, the former bus station was settled on as the

most appropriate site for the PV installation. In total,

825 panels, made of polycrystalline silicon, were

installed on the roof. The installation had to respect

the architectural integrity of the existing building. As

a consequence, the PV arrays have been installed at an

angle of 5°. The electricity produced is delivered free of

charge to a youth community interest company which

uses the building.

By the end of 2003, the community of Ajaccio (Corsica,

FR) decided to answer the call for projects of the

“CONCERTO” programme. Until then the city had little

awareness for the environmental approach, but this

changed with the cRRescendo contract in August 2005.

It is from this date that Ajaccio’s understanding and

involvement grew towards more conscious politics on

the environmental issue. Ajaccio became more aware of

the need to reduce public energy consumption as well as

the energy use of social buildings tenants.

Public buildings like schools, which are part of the urban

renewal project in priority areas, are henceforth built in

compliance with High Environmental Quality Standards

(HQE, France), aiming at “zero” energy consumption, or

even better as for the (to be built) “Maison de quartier

des Cannes”, a positive energy building, producing more

electricity than what it will use.

At the same time, taking advantage of the National

Programme for Urban Renewal (since 2007), social

landlords were able to rehabilitate an ageing housing

stock by undergoing money saving and energy saving/

producing building improvements.

The refurbishment of social (rented) housing stock

(419 apartments) was the key element of cRRescendo’s

activities in Ajaccio. Also a surface of 346 m2 of solar

collectors has been installed on social housing buildings

and will produce hot water for 223 apartments. In the

Ajaccio demonstrations the reduction in conventional

energy consumption is about 20%.

Viladecans (ES) is a coastal community, located 12

kilometres from Barcelona.

In the frame of cRRescendo, due to the recession only

five public buildings have been built or refurbished (day

care centre, youth cultural centre, historical cultural

centre, sports building and municipal building).

The city is committed to reducing CO2 emissions,

elaborated in 1996 the Agenda 21 and joined in 1997

“Barcelona network of towns towards sustainability”.

In addition, Viladecans has signed the Declaration of

Vilafranca on preventing climate change in 2005. This

initiative is covering the whole Barcelona province.

Finally, Viladecans has signed its adhesion to the

Covenant of Mayors in 2008. The Viladecans’ Council is

elaborating its Action Plan for Sustainable Energy that

contains 143 specific actions for this purpose.

In the coming years, the municipality will finalise the

installation of 1 MW of photovoltaic panels in the city

(up to 342 kW of them are part of cRRescendo project)

and (as soon as the recession is over) will build 2.000

new dwellings in a new eco-district called Llevant.

New energy for growing communities

cRRescendo, with the full project title “Combined

Rational and Renewable Energy Strategies in Cities, for

Existing and New Dwellings to ensure Optimal quality

of life”, has been carried out very successfully, despite

the crisis and thanks to the perseverance of the four

2011

The price of PV is 1€/Wp. Global PV production is 35 GWp/year. China leading solar producing country.

2012

Total cumulative installed PV solar capacity is just above 100 GWp with 70% in Europe.

2013

Start of Horizon2020 / Smart Cities & communities programme to prepare smart zero-energy urban communities in 2020 and beyond.

2014

Since the recession in Europe has slowed down the building of houses, we see in so many cities a latent wish or need for sustainable projects, but more integral than ever before. The future city must not be only carbon-neutral, but also smart and social. The pipeline is full and the political will is there. Energy and ICT technologies to realize a smart zero-energy city are becoming very affordable. E.g. the price of PV has fallen in one decade by a factor of 8. There are promising years to come.

Europe

China

US

Rest World

Europe

China

Japan

Rest World

13bridging the recession

cities and flexibility of the CONCERTO programme

management.

The main impact of cRRescendo is that it paved the

way in all four cities to make a transition towards a

smart zero-energy society within the coming decade.

We showed that cross -Europe learning works well

for both the main cities and the observer cities, if well

orchestrated. We also have to accept that the solutions

for different parts of Europe often differ from each other

or at least need a local “translation”.

During the project a strong political wind arose in

Almere to adopt an integral (ecological and socio-

economical) sustainability policy, leading to a smart

zero-carbon city in 2025 or earlier. To do so things

need to change quickly, all while trying to maintain

citizen and potential stakeholder involvement. The

disadvantage that the cRRescendo project was

easily overtaken by future developments has been

compensated by high-ambition icon inner projects. The

combination of this and the larger scale of cRRescendo

as a whole give maximum impact for replication. The

large number of visitors from all across Europe and

beyond confirms that this idea has worked well.

Milton Keynes eventually realized large ambitious but

realistic projects, with low-energy buildings and a

paradigm changing Combined Heat Power plant (CHP),

that are easy to replicate on short-term. Due to the

recession the ambition was downsized, leading to a

hesitation by the founding fathers to showcase the

results. But the economic cases were so strong that

(also due to the co-operation the private sector) the

impact of a strong replication throughout the UK is

easily shown anyway.

Ajaccio could benefit from the lessons learned in the

project but also from other French cities in other

CONCERTO projects. Renovation is firstly tackled,

while Ajaccio jumped on the train of sustainability. For

Ajaccio the time was just right (increasing sustainability

standards, conjuncture, politics and house markets

in France). The main impact on Corsica is the growing

drive from lagging behind on sustainability to being

there at the very forefront in France.

Viladecans was forced to focus on training, education

and showcasing sustainable community buildings and

PV solar energy. Despite the recession a strong policy

back up remained; there is a latency of projects as soon

as the economy recovers. Also Viladecans benefits from

the lessons learned in cRRescendo especially for the

future ambitious eco-district Llevant.

As aimed, cRRescendo integrates a major share of

sustainability into over 3,150 new and existing homes

and their energy infrastructure in order to demonstrate

the possibility, feasibility and most importantly to

meet the citizens’ wish to live in a comfortable energy

efficient home in a healthy and clean environment.

The cooperation between the cities within the

EU CONCERTO programme not only showcases

the successful integration of poly-generation and

renewable energy into a large number of ecobuildings,

but also provides the tools for a successful reprise in

these towns, the observer communities and many other

cities in Europe, in an ever swelling cRRescendo.

But the outreach goes beyond that. The project as a

whole has withstood the building crisis of 2008-”10

because the recession impacted the four cities very

differently.

cRRescendo showed that it was still possible to do in

the middle of the crisis a substantial step in energy

reduction: with energy efficiency & renewable energy

… in new & renovated districts … in growing &

modern communities … and in north & south Europe.

It is now convincingly prooved that a zero-carbon

community is possible anywhere in Europe in 2020, as

this is simply just one step away from cRRescendo.

The demonstrations are described in further detail in

the following chapters, while spread pages in-between

chapters will guide you through the extensive research,

training and dissemination.

This chapter “0” continues with a summary of results

and lessons learned in chapter 6 (page 84)

2015

Planned completion of the Maison de quartier des Cannes in Ajaccio. This community building will produce more energy than it will use: with a solar roof, an urban windturbine and more.

2018

PV solar will be the cheapest source of electricity in the world. The annual PV production will be above 300 GWp while the price of produced energy will be lower than €0.05/kWh. SolarGIS © 2013 GeoModel Solar ›

2020

signatories aim to meet and exceed the European Union

20% CO2 reduction objective by 2020. Viladecans, Milton Keynes and Almere are part of the 5,883 signatories representing 189,148,547 inhabitants (2014). A huge statement by the EU cities & citizens !!!

2022

Almere stands for “Growing Green Cities” and wants to be a zero-energy city in the year of the Floriade World Expo.

2025

Every city & community to be ‘smart’ & energy-neutral as soon as posible!

http://solargis.info

14 new energy for growing communities

1.1 Almere – a New Town

Almere, a New Town with over 190,000 inhabitants,

situated east of Amsterdam, is expected to grow to

350,000 in 2030. From its inception in 1975, the city

committed itself to sustainable development. For

example: the majority of homes in Almere were already

connected to district heating since the beginning. In

2005, plans were made to build 2,700 new sustainable

homes with accompanying schools, offices and stores in

the district Noorderplassen West and to build 1,000 new

sustainable homes and accompanying schools in the

community Columbuskwartier in district Almere Poort.

About 2,000 of these houses and buildings were

brought into the framework of the cRRescendo project.

A greener energy supply for the area needed to be

developed as well.

The planning of the projects was initiated in 1997 for

Noorderplassen West, and in 1998 for Almere Poort.

Plans needed to include an approach for the whole

energy infrastructure, which was done separately for

both districts.

Nieuw Flevolands Peil was an important initiative

helping to make the principles of sustainable

development more practical. It was a regional

Towards a zero carbon cityAlmere

1.1 Almere – a New Town

1.2 Opportunity for sustainability

— Sustainability: a matter of “Principles”

1.3 Mobilising civil servants, stakeholders and inhabitants

1.4 Almere Solar Island for a low-carbon district heating

1.5 A solar PV power plant dispersed over Columbuskwartier

— The certification scheme “Solar House”

1.6 Ecohouses and private commissioning in Noorderplassen West

1.7 Research on sustainability

1.8 Towards smart energy-neutral in 2025

1

District Noorderplassen West with the Almere Solar Island

towards a zero carbon city 15

public programme describing actions on

sustainability for the province of Flevoland.

This grass root programme had a clear

influence on the ambitions of Almere in the

beginning of the project.

1.2 Opportunity for sustainability

One step better: in Noorderplassen West,

the main goal was to reduce the energy

demand by 10% with simple interventions in

an otherwise conventional way of building

without higher costs. However, the energy

supply had to have 50% lower carbon

emissions than a conventional new-built

district.

Two steps better: in the South of

Columbuskwartier, the goal was to realise

an integral sustainable neighbourhood. Not

only from an environmental point of view,

but sustainable in many other ways. An

important goal for Columbuskwartier was to

reduce the energy demand of the houses

by more than 20% and to reduce the overall carbon

emissions by over 90%, in a cost-effective way. The

extra investment costs had to be earned back with cost

reductions, mainly by lower energy bills.

Three steps better: over 100 (passive) houses in the

North of Columbuskwartier have an approximately

50% lower energy demand than normal. With that the

project shows the way to build sustainable houses in a

cost-effective way in the future.

In both communities solar energy played an important

role.

The ambition level for buildings was set at 10%

energy savings in Noorderplassen West and 20%in

Columbuskwartier. In 2005 the urban development

process in Noorderplassen West was already rather

advanced, but a step of 10% was still achievable. The

Columbuskwartier however still had to be developed.

The project developers readily accepted the 20%

ambition, also because it was set relative to the familiar

Dutch national energy performance standard.

“Almere saw its growth, typical for

a New Town, as an opportunity

to build with a high ambition

level. cRRescendo enabled Almere

to increase that ambition in the

developments in Noorderplassen

West and Columbuskwartier. The

idea was to accomplish these

ambitions on the scale of a large

urban development. We have

successfully built houses that are

either 1, 2 or 3 steps more energy

efficient than required by the

building code.“

Emil ter Horst, cRRescendo project manager for Almere

The Columbuskwartier was developed with an integral

approach to sustainability. Besides energy savings

in buildings the development addressed the public

space and social aspects. Concurrently, the Dutch

energy agency (now www.RVO.nl) introduced a

certificate Zonnewoning (Solar House), which combines

sustainability and the indoor climate into practical,

easy-to-use guidelines. Caspar Noach (Ecofys): “We learned

that combining the Solar House certificate with a tender for

integral sustainability resulted in the most successful part of

cRRescendo: The development of the southern part of the area

Columbuskwartier known as The Marvel (De Verwondering).

However we also learned that the certificate was hardly known

among the house owners.”

The municipality of Almere anchored these ambitions

in legally binding, mutual agreements. Because

ambitions cannot be forced on project developers, a

good anticipation for what level of ambition would

be acceptable, was of key importance. The high tide

of continued (inter)national economic growth and

booming house markets in 2000-2005 allowed for

setting the ambitions high. And the builders, keen to

win the contract, set them even higher.

Eco-houses in Noorderplassen West


Sustainability: a matter of “Principles”

The intended growth of

Almere in the coming

decades will take place

in an ecologically,

socially and economically

sustainable fashion.

The aim of the national

government, the provincial

government of Flevoland

and the municipality

Almere is to position

Almere as a national

laboratory for large-

scale implementation of

sustainable systems.

The joint desire is to turn Almere into an icon of

sustainability. This high ambition is reflected in the

winning bid for the organisation of the world famous

Floriade 2022, and in policy goals such as to reach

climate and energy neutrality for the whole city in 2025.

!Use tools to objectify sustainability

contributes to make ambitions real and

comprehensible. These range from simple

checklists to clearly defined goals.

To inspire everyone who contributes to the future of

the city, local politicians defined the Almere Principles

together with Cradle-to-Cradle champion William

McDonough. The Almere Principles were developed

parallel to the preparation and realisation of the

cRRescendo demonstrations in 2005-2008.

The ambition and mission behind the integral

sustainable Columbuskwartier were based on the same

corner stones and thereby Columbuskwartier was the

first neighbourhood built completely according to

the Almere Principles, even before they were formally

accepted by the council. The numerous delegations

from Netherlands, Europe and far abroad which visit the

neighbourhood prove that Columbuskwartier has given

us a good translation of the Almere Principles, showing

an interesting modern approach on how to realise an

integral sustainable urban concept into practice.

!Agreements on content do not alter the

process of development. Sustainable

quality can only be achieved through

(personal) involvement. It is not about

enforcing, but all about alluring and

connecting. The key is to connect parties that amplify

each other.

The Almere Principles

1. Cultivate diversity: To enrich the city, we acknowledge

diversity as a defining characteristic of robust ecological,

social and economic systems. By appraising and

stimulating diversity in all areas, we can ensure Almere

will continue to grow and thrive as a city rich in variety.

2. Connect place and context: To connect the city

we will strengthen and enhance its identity. Based on

its own strength and on mutual benefit, the city will

maintain active relationships with its surrounding

communities at large.

3. Combine city and nature: To give meaning to the city

we will consciously aim to bring about unique and lasting

combinations of the urban and natural fabric, and raise

awareness of human interconnectedness with nature.

4. Anticipate change: To honour the evolution of the city

we will incorporate generous flexibility and adaptability

in our plans and programs, in order to facilitate

unpredictable opportunities for future generations.

5. Continue innovation: To advance the city we will

encourage improved processes, technologies and

infrastructures, and we will support experimentation

and the exchange of knowledge.

6. Design healthy systems: We will utilize Cradle to

Cradle solutions, recognizing the interdependence, at all

scales, of ecological, social and economic health.

7. Empower people to make the city: Acknowledging

citizens to be the driving force in creating, keeping and

sustaining the city, we facilitate them in pursuing their

unique potential.

Cover of the book The Almere Principles


to build on their own: there were simply no single

plots available. Adri Duivesteijn stipulated that 35% of

the houses to be built should be allocated to private

commissioning.

During the first three years, communication was

mainly an internal process directed at the most relevant

stakeholders in the urban development. Though the

objectives of the project were described very well

in the project proposal, development of a large new

housing area takes over a decade from initiative until

commissioning. Once the development started and is

picking up speed, it is hard to stop or even change the

process. On the other hand a long running project must

provide space for new politics and changing realities.

Examples are the financial crisis of 2008 and the

recession since the start of the development.

Communication with (future) inhabitants is difficult in

new districts, and was also missing in the beginning.

Later on, the local environmental federation NMFF took

the responsibility for the communication together with

the municipality. How to communicate and interact

with citizens is something a New town had to learn, also

because houses are actually built before people moved

into the area. At first an “Explore Lab” platform was set up

for inhabitants to express their wishes and expectations

towards the architects and builders. This Explore Lab

evolved into the more successful platform “Sustainability

Lab”, which focused on knowledge transfer to the project

and to the employees of the municipality. More recently

it became DuurzaamAlmere.nl, a sustainability shop in

the centre of Almere City where citizens, municipality

and local businesses can really meet. When the focus

shifted to private commissioning the communication

towards the citizen improved a lot, also through the

successful “Kavelwinkel”, a shop selling lots.

In the final project year the communication focus

shifted again. From mainly internal communication

to stakeholders and instructions for citizens to more

general dissemination to Almere, the Netherlands and

Europe. Almere Solar Island and the Columbuskwartier

houses in The Marvel have become well-known and

attract many visitors from Almere, and other cities in the

Netherlands. In addition professional groups from abroad

come to visit almost weekly.

In parallel Almere’s ambitions on the policy level

were also rising. In 2007 the minister of Environment

imposed the condition that if Almere wanted to grow,

it had to do so in a sustainable way. This resulted in a

covenant between Almere and the national government

(Schaalsprong Almere). For the municipality Almere

this also led to the launch of the Almere Principles,

advertised by Alderman Adri Duivesteijn.

1.3 Mobilising civil servants, stakeholders and inhabitants

But it took time to learn how to make sustainability part

of the planning routines in a fast growing city. Tools

had to be developed and civil service officers had to

change their role. At first the project was not optimally

embedded in the organisation to make use of its full

potential. Alex van Oost, senior staff member Sustainable

Building and Energy at the department responsible for

environmental policy: “At the beginning we were struggling to

find a workable definition for sustainability, and how to make it

tangible. We lacked experience with an integral approach to the

complex definition of sustainability. What we were trying to do

had hardly been done on this scale before. We started to create a

context based on People, Planet and Prosperity. We determined

specific goals and ambitions, and worked these out in a detailed

sustainability matrix.

There were political changes as well. After a shift

in political power in 2006, the new alderman Adri

Duivesteijn initiated a paradigm shift in the way of

building. Conventionally, project developers would

build in batches of ten to hundreds of houses in the

Netherlands. For individual people, it was difficult

Schools (both buildings and education) were part of the project. Opening of the Clock House information centre for children.


Name/typeNumber of Homes

Gross area per house m2

Measures Total Solar

Noorderplassen West

Eco Apartment 84 91 High insulation, EPC = 0.89 District heat

Eco House 1,462 176High insulation,EPC =0.89 district heat

Solar Apartment 48 137 High insulation, EPC = 0.72 District heat

Solar House 116 171 High insulation, EPC = 0.71 District heat

PV Systems on 3 Private Commissioning Houses n.a. n.a. PV Panels 9.9 kWp

Noorderplassen West 1,710 9.9 kWp

Columbuskwartier

Eco Apartment 114 86 High insulation, EPC = 0.8 District heat

Eco House 69 184 High insulation, EPC = 0.8 District heat

Solar Apartment 83 89

PV panels High insulation, EPC = 0.62, District heat

17 kWp

Solar House 342 140

High insulation, EPC = 0.6 PV panels on more than half of the homes District heat

325 kWp

Passive house 103 105

PV panels High insulation, EPC = 0.38, District heat

108 kWp

Carbon neutral house 1 225

PV panels High insulation, EPC = 0.03,Urban wind turbines

6.7 kWp

Columbuskwartier 712 457 kWp

Total All dwellings 2,422 271,786 466 kWp

Overview cRRescendo measures in residential buildings in Almere


Overview cRRescendo measures in non residential buildings in Almere

Name/type # functional units Realised Gross m2 Measures Solar

Noorderplassen West

Day care centre 5 1,382High insulation,District heat

Health centre 22 9,344High insulation,District heat

Shopping centre 11 1,757High insulation,District heat

Primary school 3 6,996High insulation. District heat, PV panels

47 kWp

PV on Sports accommodation

1 n.a. PV panels 45 kWp

Solar Island 1 n.a. Solar collectors 7,800 m2

Noorderplassen West 38 12,483 92 kWp7,800 m2

Columbuskwartier

Health centre 3 625 High insulation,District heat

Office 1 45 High insulation,District heat

Primary school 6 5,178 High insulation,District heat

Sports accommodation 1 1,071 High insulation,District heatPV panels

44 kWp

International School1

5,135 High insulation,District heatPV panels

26 kWp

PV on “Klokhuis” n.a. PV panels 1.4 kWp

PV on secondary school n.a. PV panels 23 kWp

PV on Community Disposal Centre

1 n.a. PV panels 37 kWp

Columbuskwartier 12 12,054 130 kWp

Total Non-residential 50 24,537 222 kWp 7,800 m2


Panorama of Almere Solar Island (source: Panopictures.nl, J.A. Prins, 2010)

Solar Island, installation of (large surface) collectors

1.4 Almere Solar Island for a low-carbon district heating

Solar Island Noorderplassen West

District heating was already common practice in Almere

(40% lower carbon emissions than the reference). But in

Noorderplassen West the municipality wanted to go one

step further and reduce the CO2 emissions of the energy

supply by an additional 10% (to 50%). The initial idea was

to place a solar thermal system on individual homes

by the utility. However, potential project developers

opposed the idea of roofs owned by a utility. Consequently

centralized generation was considered and the Solar

Island was born. The plan was a large ground-based solar

thermal energy system feeding its heat into the district

heating system - not done anywhere else before. In 2003,

a location was found in the secondary space near the

ring road: an area not usable for housing due to noise

regulations. But the visibility to the public and thus the

potential exposure was excellent. This was to be the first

large-scale icon for sustainability in Almere.

Who should pay for this first-time innovation? The Solar

Island would increase the costs of district heating per

house by € 1,500. On top of the normal connection costs of

€ 3,500 that is quite a burden either for households or the

utility. The CONCERTO project could co-finance the Solar

Island, thus limiting the extra burden on households to a

few hundred Euro (€ 427) per home. But a more sustainable

energy supply should not become an excuse to build less

efficient houses. Antonin van de Bree, building expert of Ecofys:

“To avoid that the efficiency gain of the Solar Island would lead to

a lower insulation quality of the homes, its effect was excluded

from the applied energy performance calculation method.”

The additional ambition of a 10% lower energy demand

was enforced in one straight forward text line in every

developing contract for a specific site.

Solar Island commissioning and building

The building process of the Solar Island was delayed. Quite

late in the design process, it was discovered that feeding

the heat of the Solar Island into the city district heating

did not fit, due to counter pressure of this system. A new

design had to be made for the regulation system, with

heavier pumps.

Finally the Solar Island was put into operation, in June

2010. It consists of 7,800 m2 gross area (7,135 m2 net area)

of solar collectors. It delivered approx. 8,700 GJ per year

to the district heating in Almere in 2010-2011. From a

technical point of view this is very satisfactory: just above

specifications. From an economical point of view NUON

started with a financial loss. This was caused by a lower

amount of connections than anticipated in the business

case caused by delays in the building of houses due to the

financial crisis. The Solar Island has been replicated already

several times in Europe, clearly showing the economic

feasibility in general.

Emil ter Horst: “Meanwhile, the Solar Island has become an icon for

sustainability for Almere. It attracts visitors from all over the world,

because a solar heat installation connected to district heating is

unique. One advantage of the direct connection to district heating is

that all the solar heat produced can be utilised throughout the year.”


Long-distance district heating for Columbuskwartier

Tender for the energy supply

In 1999 the energy supply of Almere Poort was tendered.

An important criterion was to achieve a 50% or more

reduction in CO2 emissions compared to a reference

scenario based on gas heating. NUON won the tender with

an offer achieving a 93% CO2 reduction with a combination

of district heating, photovoltaics, and a biomass plant.

Consequently NUON was contracted to supply renewable

heat and green power to Almere Poort. The contract

specified the agreed performance levels but no specific

technologies.

Change of plan

In 2005, NUON proposed to change technologies,

because they had become owner of the Diemen

Power station. This is a large gas fired electric power

plant with excess heat used for district heating near

Amsterdam, and about 8 km away from Almere. A study

had shown it was feasible to transport the excess heat

by a pipeline through the IJmeer lake to the district-

heating network of Almere Poort. The municipality

endorsed this change, as Almere had gained insight

that a biomass plant in a living district might not be the

best solution due to possible air pollution and increased

traffic of supply trucks.

Both parties agreed upon an addendum to the contract

safeguarding the CO2 reduction from the original offer

in two ways. First, NUON will buy green electricity

certificates equivalent to what the cancelled biomass

plant would have produced during 30 years. And

The huge impressive red Heat Transfer Station in district Poort

Pipeline trajectory Almere Sustainable District Heating coming from Amsterdam, reaching the Heat Transfer Station

secondly, NUON implemented a flue gas heat recovery

system on the power plant, delivering 5 to 6 MW of

extra heat. Such a system can be added to an existing

plant without interruption of operation. The heat

recovery system proved financially beneficial as it

produces extra heat without extra energy/electricity

use. A new electric power plant (Diemen-34) has already

been constructed by NUON exploiting heat recovery

technology right from the start in 2012.

The final CO2-emission and renewable energy

performance goals for the energy supply in Almere

Poort contracted to NUON:

- 91% CO2-reduction with the supply of heat

- 100% CO2-reduction with the supply of electricity

- Resulting in an average of 93% CO2-emission

reduction compared to the emission of equivalent

newly built houses in 2000

- 10% of the total energy supply is to be generated by

renewable energy sources

Getting it done

Planning and especially obtaining the environmental

permits for the pipeline took a considerable amount of

time, because the trajectory runs through the IJmeer,

a lake area protected under the Natura 2000 law.

Construction started in 2011 and was completed in 2012

with the commissioning of the impressive red “Heat

Transfer Station”. The sustainable district heating was

realised without cRRescendo funds. In March 2012 the

first heat was delivered in Almere.


1.5 A solar PV power plant dispersed over Columbuskwartier

In total almost 700 kWp of photovoltaic solar panels

were placed on approx. 500 houses and buildings in

the community. These buildings include the Passive

houses, the Solar Houses, a primary, secondary and

international school, two sports buildings and a waste

separation station. The systems were all architecturally

integrated in the houses but not always integrated in

the roofs.

The green electricity produced is connected behind the

meter, giving all profit to the owners and tenants of the

houses. NUON takes care of the maintenance of all PV

systems for the first ten years. Downside of this hassle-

free commitment of NUON and Almere, is that citizens

living below their sun roofs may not even notice their

solar system and may be less involved than hoped for.

Almere had two main reasons for (also) placing PV

systems on municipality-owned buildings in the

community. First, Almere wanted to show it’s own

commitment to sustainability to it’s citizens. Secondly,

Almere wanted to experiment with different concepts

of ownership, operation and maintenance.

The Solar House certificate had just been developed.

The municipality considered this certificate a robust

and manageable way to ensure their ambitions. Half of

the houses in Columbuskwartier would become Solar

Houses. The others would be lower ambition) Eco-

houses.

In 2004, a competition was launched to develop (the

south part of) the Columbuskwartier with high energy

ambitions and requirements on the sustainability

of the neighbourhood. Close to 600 houses in

Columbuskwartier were part of the tender.

The southern wing: The Marvel

The impressive showcase project The Marvel (Dutch:

De Verwondering) was realised by project developer

TBI-Koopmans, after they had won the tender for the

joint development with the municipality of the area.

On the drawing board the certified Solar Houses (see

inset in this chapter) and Eco-houses were intermixed

Solar Houses and beyond

and not separated into different blocks. During the

building phase this proved to be beneficial for the

overall energy-performance. TBI-Koopmans wanted

to make the design, building, and purchasing process

as uniform as possible. For instance; the same type of

glazing and insulation thickness was applied for both

types of homes. As a result, 190 of the Eco-Houses had

higher energy-performance than originally planned

and reached the ambition level of the 235 certified

Solar Houses. Finally a total of 580 houses were built,

of which 154 Eco-homes, 425 Solar Houses, and 1 CO2-

neutral house, all part of a socially and ecologically

integrated urban design.

Emil ter Horst: “The cRRescendo ambitions and timing fit well

with the realisation of the Columbus community. Attention

has been paid to the energy consumption of the homes, but

also to the liveability of the public space. Sustainability of the

neighbourhood was addressed in a broader sense than ever

before. A simple and beautiful example is that children can go

to school exclusively using roads not accessible to cars. Not only

safe but also leaving parents with their cars at home and thus

reducing collateral energy use. For me, The Marvel is the marble

in the Almere cRRescendo demonstration. But I would rather

let you discover that by listening to the people who should take

credit.”

See Chapter 5 (page 74) where the making of

The Marvel is elucidated

Be careful with the use of a certificate. In cRRescendo some certificates were hardly known among the house owners, while the certification process raise the costs of a house.


The certification scheme “Solar House”

The so-called Zonnewoning (Solar House) has played a

key role within The Marvel. It is a certification scheme

for sustainable dwellings launched by the Dutch

energy agency in 2005. The scheme focused on integral

sustainability while safeguarding a more comfortable

interior climate. Special characteristics of a Solar House are:

More energy efficient:

- An energy performance (EPC) 15% better than the legal

standard.

- Two renewable energy measures (solar power, solar

heat, heat pump, bio energy, or passive solar energy).

More comfortable to live in:

- The orientation (south) and large windows ensure

more daylight.

- The well aligned insulation and ventilation ensure a

healthy inner climate.

More sustainable:

- The use of sustainable building materials, and FSC-

certified wood.

- Special rules during the design to ensure the use of

sustainable techniques (besides materials).

For Almere the goal was to test whether this certificate

would work as an instrument to realise extra

sustainability. Secondly the certificate could work as a

communication instrument between builder and

end-user, to guarantee the quality of the house.

But where these two goals accomplished? The answer

is yes, and no. For the municipality the certificate

indeed offered an instrument that enabled them to

plan and verify a higher ambition level. But the role of

the certificate as a marketing instrument was simply

not successful. In practice the certificate was not able

to distinguish itself enough for future house owners

from other not-certified products. For the construction

companies the certification led to a loss in flexibility and

extra costs. Currently the certification body is therefore

not actively promoting the certificate anymore.

Technical challenges:

Due to the fact that district heating is standard in

Almere only two realistic renewable measures energy

remained: solar panels and passive solar energy. Project

developers however posed that this would lead to high

additional costs and very high percentages of glass

surface, because at least 33% of the gross heat demand

had to be provided through passive solar energy. An

Ecofys study showed that the amount was feasible by

applying two simple steps:

- Reducing the gross heat demand, automatically

rising the passive share towards the aimed 33%.

- Enlarging the glass surface using a higher G-value of

the glass (Solar Heat Gain), to increase the ability to

transmit the radiation of the sun.

The study shows results on the requirements for a Solar

House oriented south-east compared to a reference

house. It was concluded that a Solar House was feasible

by enlarging the glass surface by amounts that were

well manageable. Based on calculations made during

the discussion with the developers the additional costs

for a Solar House compared to a “standard house” were

between €5000 and €6000 for a terraced house and

€3500 and €4500 for a semi-detached or corner house

(excluding the costs for the PV-system which was fully

paid for by NUON). The final payback period is very

dependent of the inhabitants use pattern, but varied

between 13 and 17 years.

The main additional measures are:

- Better insulation of roof (20%), walls (15%) and glazing

(10%);

- A few extra square meters of glazing;

- Glazing with a G-value of 0.70;

- Sun screens (on when NW oriented);

- A different ventilation system;

- Low-temperature heating (instead of the standard

high-temperature);

- A 930 Wp PV system.Instructions for citizens must be laid down in a easy to understand manual


Solar energy plays a key role in Columbuskwartier. These solar PV panels are on the roof of the Sports facility; with a nice view on the Passive houses in the upper right and the Heat Transfer Station (red) in the upper left.

The CO2- neutral house (Right).

Aerial view on the community Columbuskwartier (south) with the Almere ‘s most important showcase The Marvel (De Verwondering) during building


The northern wing: Passive houses

In the northern part of Columbuskwartier another

iconic showcase was born: an initiative to build 103

Passive Homes for the rental sector. These passive

houses were built by a joint development venture of

BAM Real Estate and Ballast Nedam. The development

was an initiative that had come up in parallel to

cRRescendo and was later embedded into cRRescendo.

The houses incorporate triple glazing, summer-night

ventilation shutters, very well insulated floors, walls

and roofs. The municipality of Almere and NUON

provided solar PV panels. Social Housing Corporation

De Goede Stede ordered and now rents out the homes.

They have been coaching the renters for energy-

efficient and comfortable use of their homes.

The sustainable measures to reach the ambition

level costed approximately € 20,000 extra per house,

excluding the costs for solar panels. Too costly to

put them on the market without financial support.

An additional difficulty in the rental market is that

hardly any raise of rents for higher energy efficiency

is accepted by low-income households. This is a

general problem in the social rental sector in the

Netherlands and in other EC countries, which has

lately gained attention. On top of that, the houses

Passive homes for the social rental sector (with 1 kWp PV solar panels per household on the roof).

Passive houses need a precise and careful construction. Triple HR glazing, extremely thick insulation and many more measures are standard.

had to be connected to district heating, due to the

contract between the municipality and utility NUON.

For a passive house a costly obligation: substantial

connection costs but a very low heat consumption,

which limits the earning back potential considerably.

In addition 38 Solar Houses and several Eco-houses were

developed in this northern part of Columbuskwartier by

the largest Dutch real estate developer Bouwfonds.

See also page 58 for Case: Serial-built “Passive Houses” in

the rental sector


1.6 Ecohouses and private commissioning Noorderplassen West

In Noorderplassen West, ground contracts with project

developers with requirements on extra sustainability

(10%) had already been drawn up by the time the

cRRescendo contract was final. Vera Haaksma (Ecofys):

“Attempts to raise the ambitions, for instance by incorporating

Solar Houses, had to be done by convincing the project

developers. This turned out to be very difficult due to reluctance

towards innovations and a project and budget well on its way.

Ecofys showed the developers how building sustainabily is not

more expensive.”

The first one-third of the houses was allocated to

project developers mostly before the start of the

project. The other two-third of the homes in NPW

was not allocated until mid 2006. Early 2007, local

municipal elections shifted the political “colour” in the

municipality.

From 2007 onwards private commissioning became in

favour: most plots were sold to persons who developed

the houses themselves. The municipality made

external consultants available to assist the private

commissioners with the many issues they faced in the

building process. These consultants were also trained

on energy saving by Ecofys. Meetings were organised to

inform the consultants on energy issues and investing

in energy efficiency measures. The consultants

were instructed to raise the issues of energy costs

and sustainability in their contacts with private

commissioners.

An evaluation shows that private commissioning

results in larger and detached houses, which consume

Two examples of private commissioning in Almere-Poort, showing its diversity in a nutshell.

more energy in total, but have the same energy

performance per m2. As this type of commissioning

increases, this group needs extra attention. Almere

feared that it would be difficult to persuade people of

improving the energy efficiency of their own houses,

because building your own home requires people to pay

attention to many issues at the same time. For private

commissioners sustainability was still stimulated but

not mandatory. To our surprise the evaluation however

showed that some 200 privately commissioned houses

actually did comply with the ambitious cRRescendo

standards.

1.7 Research on sustainability

Almere Poort and the major part of the city of Almere

are heated by district heating, a major technology to

realise CO2 reductions for a municipality. Coupling

district heating to co-generation is a well-known

energy option in the Netherlands, leading to 40% CO2

reduction. The Almere Solar Island has demonstrated a

further reduction of CO2 by 10%. But what will be next in

the crusade to zero-carbon district heating? Geothermal

and biomass were studied. And how to generate

sufficient electric power besides the PV systems? Wind

energy and regeneration of combined heat and cold

for a zero-carbon district were investigated. All these

studies, not only for the district Poort but also for

future districts, were carried out under the cRRescendo

umbrella. Let’s have a look.

Geothermal energy

Almere wanted to look at the potential of low-

temperature geothermal energy. The geological

structure called the Slochteren Formation was


Almere Pampus windturbines nearby the Columbuskwartier community

investigated showing that geothermal energy can

be delivered to the district Nobelhorst, but not to

other existing districts as the distance to the relevant

geological layer becomes too large. In the Nobelhorst

district thousands of new houses will be built in the

years to come.

Biogas

Another interesting option is the potential of green

gas. In general, green gas can be directly used in homes

instead of natural gas. Six farmers in the area around

Almere are already producing biogas through a manure

fermentation process. Together with these farmers

and the province Flevoland, Almere conducted a study

to determine the current and potential production of

biogas and green gas in 2030. It turned out that the

farmers can deliver huge amounts of biogas or green

gas to the city of Almere. This gas can (amongst others)

be used in the district heating of Almere. The present

six biogas production plants are already producing 23

million m3 of biogas, sufficient for heating 9,000 houses

in Almere. The potential for 2030 is 115 million m3 of

biogas, sufficient to heat 45,000 houses.

Regeneration of Combined Heat and Cold in a water

protection area

Nobelhorst is Almere’s newest neighbourhood under

development with over 4,000 dwellings and a business

area of 500,000 m2. As it is intended to be carbon

neutral, Nobelhorst is an ideal candidate for learning

from the lessons from cRRescendo.

But the area has its restrictions, as it is situated

above a drinking water reservoir. Therefore, use of

the underground for heating and cooling purposes is

prohibited. Several research studies were conducted

to solve this issue, e.g. one in which a system was

studied to use the area 500 meter up north, beyond

the restricted area and another one in which only the

shallow system (10 meter below surface) was used.

In the Netherlands dwellings happen to have a larger

demand for heat than cold. Therefore one normally

needs to regenerate the soil in residential areas where

underground heat and cold is deployed. The heat can

be delivered for example by a nearby existing biogas

cogeneration unit. Another possibility is to combine

residential with business areas and to deliver “cold” to

the business area.

Wind energy potential

In 2011 and 2012 research has been done on how

much wind energy can be deployed in Almere. These

wind energy options relate directly to the energy

supply contract for Almere Poort and therefore to

Columbuskwartier: NUON must provide 100% green

electricity. The feasibility study showed that 10 existing

1.65 MW windmills of Almere Pampus can provide this.

Now, but also in the future (when the district grows), as

the turbines can be replaced in the future by larger ones.

The energy supply contract for the Poort district also

requires that 10% of sustainable energy has to be

produced locally, which is not yet achieved by the 689

kWp solar PV panels within the cRRescendo project.

New wind turbines in the area are an option. From

technical, environmental and landscape point of view

a lot is possible with large wind turbines in Almere.

Smaller urban turbines are also an option, but because

substantial power is needed, the emphasis will be on

large turbines.

Although some conflicts with the existing provincial

and national policy have to be solved, over 100 MW of

new wind power can be located in Almere. Partly on

municipal grounds and partly on private ground. If so,

wind can contribute up to 25% of the sustainable energy

production for an energy-neutral Almere in 2025.

Studies show that acceptance of wind turbines near

housing depends largely on adequate information and

the possibility for inhabitants to profit financially.

Therefore, the municipality must facilitate financial

participation. Lately also options and choices for bottom-

up initiatives to participate have been studied with very


interesting results. The so-called “Deals for Sustainable

Almere 2012-2014” (September 2012) are important

municipal policy statements on wind energy.

New solar PV business models

In Almere (cRRescendo) hundreds of houses

and several other municipality-owned

buildings have been equipped with solar PV

panels. Almere is experimenting and preparing

new business models for PV. In the so-called

“Company”on” model (in Dutch: Bedrijf-Zoekt-

Buur), company-owned solar panels are

installed on the roof of an employee, a client,

or a neighbour. The model combines a tax

deduction opportunity for the company with

delivering high-value electricity at consumer

tariff level. The inhabitant gets a solar system

free of investment and pays an annual fee to the

company for the consumption of the renewable

energy. A similar model was developed placing company-

owned solar panels on local government buildings.

The model has been tested in Amsterdam with school

buildings.

For and with the community

With the Almere Principles in mind, Almere wants to

develop to a sustainable city not only on a ecological

base, but also socio-economically. We think that our

people make the city: the residents of the CONCERTO

communities are the driving force for creating sustainable

communities and , and the Almere’s citizens in general

eventually for a smart sustainable city. In the project

we have put great effort in informing our citizens and

involving them. From the youngest child to the most senior

citizen, or again referring to the “Principles” from Cradle to

Cradle.

1.8 Towards smart energy-neutral in 2025

Masterplan Energy Almere

A major result of cRRescendo research and the adoption

of the lessons-learnt for Almere is the Masterplan

Energy Almere 2.0 (MEA). The successful Solar Island in

Noorderplassen West, the Passive Houses and the Solar

Houses in Columbuskwartier fostered the belief that

Almere might become energy-neutral. In 2011 the MEA

study was commissioned by the province of Flevoland,

as part of the collective quest with the national and

local authority to double the city’s housing capacity

and increasing its quality (= “Almere 2.0”). The target of

energy-neutrality from 2025 onwards and iconic measures

for the short term (2012-2014) were undersigned by

Almere, Flevoland and the Ministry of Infrastructure and

Environment in September 2012.

On-going studies on wind energy, solar panel boosting,

a greener heating network and geothermal energy were

integrated in this study. The target of energy neutrality

in the municipality is allowed to be partly obtained with

renewable energy capacity in the surrounding province.

The baseline scenario to 2025 showed that with a

growth of 50,000 households, generic trends in energy

consumption lead to an autonomous energy consumption

of 9,8 PJ. This is partly covered by 1,84 PJ locally produced

sustainable energy, mainly due to market penetration of

solar panels.

The energy vision of Almere for 2025 consists of

4 elements:

- extra energy savings

- exchange of energy

- shifts in energy carriers (gas to electricity)

- local and regional production of Sustainable energy

Within reasonable constraints, 20% extra energy savings

and energy exchange can be deployed, leading to 1 PJ of

end-use reduction. A total of 3.9 PJ/yr can be produced

with wind, solar, biomass and geothermal capacity within

the city boundaries. The remaining 4.9 PJ can be achieved

in the surroundings using wind, biogas and geothermal

capacity. Thus, 44% of the net energy consumption can

be produced within city boundaries and 56% from the

surroundings. Realisation will require large investments

but also creates jobs.

“So now even people with little

capital can get solar panels. We

made interesting business cases for

both the company and the resident.”

Anne Marie van Osch, cRRescendo project manager sustainable energy Almere

Alderman Ben Scholten planting a tree at the opening of the Passive Houses


20102025baseline

2025MEA 2.0

2025 MEA 2.0+surr

End-use (PJ) 7.2 9.8 8.8 8.8

Sustainable production (PJ) 0.65 1.84 3.9 8.8

Reduction CO2 (kton/year) 90 232 414 800

Net CO2-emissions (kton/year) 560 656 386 0

Local investments (M€) 1,167 1,745

New jobs in person years 3,823 4,866

Policy changes

On European level, implementation of sustainable

energy requires a level playing field, combined with

temporary incentives. In Almere some fundamental

regional policy changes are required as well for this

energy transition to succeed, such as:

- the provincial policy on wind energy is to be revised

- expanding legal and financial options for solar power

- consider a regional sustainable energy organisation.

Several business cases have been selected, based on

their energy potential and their expected feasibility.

In these the combination of public and commercial

parties, pension funds and specific banks (public private

partnerships) allow for a lower, and socially responsible

rate of return. (e.g 5%). The presence of a willing and

financially solid municipality is essential to achieve and

finance this energy transition.

Regional networks

Almere is working closely in a network of 35 other

local governments and the provinces of Flevoland and

Noord-Holland in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area

(Metropool Regio Amsterdam). This region wants to be

energy neutral in 2040, using only renewable energy

and no fossil fuels. Jointly, studies are conducted and

working conferences for aldermen are held. Also in this

network cRRescendo houses en demonstrations in

Almere are used as a guiding example.

Beyond cRRescendo: the making of the Floriade 2022 Immediately after the project end date of cRRescendo,

in September 2012, the Dutch Horticultural Council

(NTR) announced that Almere is chosen to organize the

7th edition of the Floriade. The themes of the Floriade

2022: greening, feeding, energising and healthying the

city, align perfectly with local, national and European

issues. Almere as a growing city wants to create a

“smart” green city where energy is generated, rather

than used alone. She wants to achieve a circular

economy where waste is transformed into raw

material in closed and sustainable cycles. And a bio

based economy, so a revolutionary transition from an

economy that runs on fossil fuels to an economy that

runs on biomass.

Scenarios baseline and MEA 2.0 and MEA 2.0+surr

Almere Floriade 2022 will be parrallelled by the most ambitious urban development and will pave the way towards an energy and carbon neutral Almere in 2022


A special concept within CONCERTO projects is the presence of associated partners

or so-called observers (often municipalities) in the consortium that carries out the

project. cRRescendo adopted this concept as a primary means to disseminate lessons

to other municipalities in Europe.

When the project kicked off, observers were easily interested to actively participate in

cRRescendo. Peer reviews and excursions to best practice communities were well attended

and inspiring for both observing and the four core municipalities.

However, during cRRescendo’s third to fifth years, it became harder to interest the observers.

There simply was not enough direct gain from the project for observers to allocate substantial

human resources. Eventually, we were able to attract the observers’ attention again by

demonstrating the results of the projects in four main cities, and by showing ways to increase

their own direct gain in the project.

Looking back we can see a clear positive impact of cRRescendo on the observing communities.

For instance new EU project proposals by observers reach higher quality levels. During our

evaluation it was interesting to learn what results of cRRescendo can be applied to other cities

in general and to the observers in particular, and what results may need tuning to the specific

constraints of another community or region.

Misterbianco (Sicily), Italy

Misterbianco is an important commercial

centre in the north-western part of Catania

on Sicily. Its population of 50,000 inhabitants

is spread out over a vast area. Suburbs occupy

half of its surface while commercial facilities

occupy 30%. In sustainable development,

Misterbianco takes into account two different

autonomous developments:

- the growth of the suburbs and;

- the stagnation of the historic centre.

The main renewable energy source in the

Misterbianco territory is solar energy for

electric energy with photovoltaic systems and

for thermal energy through solar collectors.

Misterbianco wants to become one of the

first solarised cities on Sicily. To achieve this

main medium-term goal a great commitment

on the short term is required:

1. Installation of about 4,000 m² of

photovoltaic panels on the roofs of urban

buildings;

2. Installation of about 6,000 m² of solar hot

water collectors;

3. Reduction by 10% of the energy demand in

the commercial area.

Sergio Campanella: “We were stimulated by

cRRescendo from the start to present the

EU state-of-the-art in Misterbianco and to

prepare a Local Action Plan. Preparation of

this continuous plan and the dissemination

of results afterwards were subsidized by

the EC, but for the realisation of the actions

a much larger investment was done by the

Misterbianco community.”

Four cRRescendo actions were applied in

Misterbianco:

A. Realisation of PV and thermal solar plants

in public structures

B. Citizen sensitisation

C. Interventions towards families

D. Interventions for saving energy in public

lighting

From observer to doer


Sofia, Bulgaria

Our largest observer community is Sofia,

capital of Bulgaria. Sofia carried out several

detailed surveys, for example on the

“Possibilities for the Use of Renewable Energy

Sources and Energy Saving Technologies

in Municipal Buildings”. In addition a pilot

in a central (“Vazrajdane”) and a peripheral

(“Vrabnitsa”) district of Sofia was performed.

An activity with direct impact was the

Zapiska project. The main objectives

of this research were: establishing a

complete programme for the utilization of

hydrothermal resources on the territory

of Sofia, rehabilitating all municipal

baths buildings, and refurbishing their

environment. This Zapiska research included

the assessment of hydrothermal potential as

well as the environmental impact.

The realization of the refurbishment

programme is warranted by grants to Sofia

from Bulgaria’s Ministry of Environment and

Water.

Nadia Nikolova: ”Sofia has been an observer right

from the start. One of the main practical benefits

of this relationship was that Sofia became a main

partner in a more recent CONCERTO-II project

STACCATO. Sofia was introduced to STACCATO by

cRRescendo partner Ecofys.”

Two important sustainable developments

have followed the implementation of

cRRescendo in Sofia. First, investments

directed at reduction of energy consumption

were realized at nine schools in nine districts.

Repairs and refurbishment of the school

buildings will result in 53% lower energy costs

because of a decreased energy consumption

by 3,823 MWh. Second, the Mayor of Sofia

has become involved in the Covenant of

Mayors, a European cooperation committed

to increasing energy efficiency and the use of

renewable sources.

San de Sénart, France

The community of Sénart comprises of 10

towns and villages, with 110,000 inhabitants.

Sénart is located 35 km southeast of Paris. It is

the youngest of the new towns surrounding

Paris, and is still growing rapidly.

San de Sénart has intensified the

participation in the final period of

cRRescendo, when it became possible to

combine cRRescendo actions with their own

plans: the Local Housing Programme and

the Sustainable Energy Action Plan. Sénart

undertook two main actions.

The successful conference “Sustainable

development and social housing

refurbishment”, in 2007, involved most

of Sénart’s social housing organisations.

Afterwards, these social house owners

measured the energy performance in

housings. Results were shocking. Since

then, social householders quickly became

innovative, have undertaken actions to

refurbish 15% of the investigated housings

and to make energy improvement works on

54%, up to 2015.

Nathalie Dupont: “We learned that monitoring is

important, a new way of thinking for us. This might

be a stimulant for future building programs. One of

our local partners, the housing corporation Relais

Jeunes 77, intends to build a residence for young

people in 2014. Installing monitoring systems in

these residences could be a way for them to watch

energy and water consumption in accommodations

they manage.”

Together with social owner Relais Jeunes 77,

Sénart developed an interactive tool, called

“Max & Soraya learn eco-friendly behaviour”,

to raise young people eco-awareness and

behaviour. The “Max & Soraya” movies are

broadcasted on the Sénart website.


2.1 Milton Keynes – the scene

UK’s largest new town

Milton Keynes is situated midway between Birmingham

and London. It is the largest urban development project

ever undertaken in the UK – a “new town” - with an

expected eventual population of about 250,000 people,

primarily built to accommodate the growth of the London

area. The City was designated in 1967 at which time the

area’s population was approximately 40,000. From the

1970’s through to the 1990’s Milton Keynes established

itself as Britain’s fastest growing urban area and has

remained one of the fastest growing areas up to the

present day. The City has evolved as a major regional

centre. Currently approximately 210,000 live in the new

city. Almere and Milton Keynes are so-called Twin Towns.

Milton Keynes Development Corporation

The early development of the city was the responsibility

of Milton Keynes Development Corporation, which was

established by the central government. The Master Plan

for Milton Keynes was published in 1970. It was devised

as a strategic framework capable of responding to

changing needs, rather than a town map or a “blue-

print.” Six guiding principles were identified, one

of which addresses sustainability: “Efficient and

imaginative use of resources.”

The power of heat Milton Keynes

2.1 Milton Keynes – the scene

2.2 A suite of sustainable projects

2.3 Vizion – iconic building as an urban landscape

2.4 Office of tomorrow - The Pinnacle

2.5 Combined heat and power generation

2.6 PV power plant on former bus station

2.7 Moving forward

2

Central Milton Keynes

the power of heat 33

The Master Plan also recognised the close

connection between transport systems and

the arrangement of land uses and the need

to consider these two fundamental elements

together. A unique “grid” pattern of main

roads - intersecting at approximately 1 km

intervals - stimulates dispersed land uses

throughout the City. The dispersal of homes

and jobs allows for an even distribution of

traffic.

The Development Corporation put in place

much of the city’s infrastructure and oversaw

its rapid and large-scale growth during the

1970’s and 1980’s. When the Corporation was

eventually wound up in 1992 its remaining

land and property assets were transferred

to the Commission for the New Towns

and, subsequently, its successor English

Partnerships, the National Regeneration

Agency.

2.2 A suite of sustainable projects

Central Milton Keynes was designated as the “city centre”

and an exception to the principle of dispersed land uses.

It was envisaged that Central Milton Keynes should

contain a substantial shopping centre, cultural and

leisure activities/facilities, housing and offices to serve

the population of the new city and the surrounding area.

With at its heart a sustainable residential quarter.

Embracing Sustainable excellence

The objectives of the CONCERTO programme resonate

directly with the challenges faced by Milton Keynes

as it matures into a significant regional centre. There

was a good “fit” between the emerging vision for the

“The ambitious CONCERTO projects

have created nation-wide exposure

for Milton Keynes and made a

huge difference to the communities

where these projects are based.

Milton Keynes now benefits from

sustainability pathfinder status

and we are pleased the HCA has

been able to support partners to

boost the town’s growth potential

as a destination of choice for urban,

environmentally-conscious citizens.”

Margaret Allen, Executive Director, HCA Midlands.

municipality and the realisation of ambitious projects:

the physical deliverables associated with cRRescendo/

CONCERTO. Projects and policy in unison!

The UK Government under the Sustainable Communities

Plan designated Milton Keynes as a “Growth Area” in

2003, and subsequently in the Milton Keynes & South

Midlands Sub-Regional Strategy. A long-term vision was,

therefore, developed to guide the proposed expansion of

Milton Keynes.

Jeremy Draper, Senior Practitioner, Environment Team, Milton

Keynes Council: “The Milton Keynes Local Plan, adopted in 2005,

included an ambitious sustainable construction policy (known

as Policy D4), stipulating that all new development above a

certain size must be ‘carbon neutral’ or offset its emissions

within the city, incorporate renewable energy technologies to

deliver a 10% reduction in CO2, feature water conservation and

drainage technologies, and use sustainable building materials

and minimise waste.” At the time of its introduction

this policy was seen as “pushing the boundary” in

terms of reducing the resource consumption of new

development and achieving zero carbon growth.

The aspiration of developing MK into a ‘showcase low

carbon city” was later articulated in the Low Carbon

Prospectus (NHBC Foundation, 2010). Jeremy Draper: “The

prospectus presents a vision for reducing the environmental

impact of buildings and transport through a wide range of

initiatives involving a diverse range of stakeholder groups.”

The cRRescendo initiative

Four separate developments with ambitions beyond

standard regulations were realised in Milton

Keynes within the cRRescendo project: the

Vizion, the Pinnacle, a Combined Heat and

Power plant, and a large PV system.

Jeremy Draper and Jon Muncaster (Senior Urban Designer,

English Partnerships) concur: “the CONCERTO programme has

been instrumental to achieving the sustainability and quality of

these projects.”

The developments cover production and use of heat, cold,

and power and demonstrate sustainable consumption

in domestic and commercial use. The commercial use

consists of office and shops/retail. Two of the projects

achieved national exposure in the UK.

!Eco-buildings and combined heat and power plant in Central Milton Keynes, the 165 kWp PV system is located on the old bus station near the station just west of this area


Vizion Apartments with award-winning Roof Garden landscaping

Vizion - inner courtyard (Left)Vizion - streetview (Right)


2.3 Vizion – iconic building as an urban landscape

The Vizion complex is a high quality vertical mixed-

use development by Abbeygate Developments Ltd.

The English Partnerships competition winning design

by q2 Architects is a vibrant high density mixed-use

development which not only creates a landmark

for Central Milton Keynes but also addresses the

city’s sustainable development objectives. It was

completed in April 2009. The development contains

441 apartments and townhouses, a large Sainsbury’s

store of approximately 10,000 m2 and another 4,100

m2 commercial and retail units. The 441 residential

units are distributed over 14 blocks totalling 26,887 m2.

Buildings gradually step up in height from 4 to 12 storeys,

providing active frontages to the existing streets,

increasing connectivity to adjacent areas and providing

non-obtrusive security by maximising sight lines to the

main footpath routes.

An Enhanced Building Fabric (EBF) was deployed to raise

the standard of the building thermal characteristics

beyond national regulatory requirements. Better

insulation of walls, roofs and windows, and less air

changes per hour were applied. These building thermal

characteristics of the apartment blocks were based

upon the cRRescendo Specifications. In addition,

water saving fittings were applied throughout to

reduce demand for hot water. Jon Muncaster: “Our initial

plans were much more distinguishing with respect to the

national regulations of 2001. But as we encountered delays,

and regulations were sharpened in 2003 and 2005, the lead

evaporated partly. A strange effect of time.”

All buildings are designed with advanced energy

performance, to meet BREEAM “Excellent” and Eco-

Homes “Very Good” ratings. The electricity and heating

are supplied by the CHP system. Residential units have

large balconies, which also provide solar shading. A

pleasant open streetscape is maintained by providing

two levels of basement parking below the main

buildings.

How do residents perceive their Vizion apartment? Are

they aware of the energy measures? Partly, seems to

be the answer. A questionnaire was distributed to the

inhabitants, and 28 replies were received.

36% of the respondents were aware that their

apartment block was connected to a combined heat

and power plant, and 43% that it was specially designed

for less heating and fitted with efficient lighting and

Landscaped courtyard Vizion


appliances. However, regardless whether people were

aware of the measures implemented two-thirds are

actually happy with it.

John Piggott, Associate Director, Arup: “Many prospective

residents are nervous about taking heat and power from a CHP

scheme (which is still an unusual arrangement in the UK). They

prefer dealing with a big utility company that they recognise.

Hence the “anonymity” of the energy supplies in Milton Keynes

is actually a real positive outcome. Many sustainability projects

in the early 2000s were making “statements” that sometimes

backfired if the costs went up or the technology did not deliver.

Milton Keynes is a refreshing change because it is low-key and it

just works.”

The design and layout, daylight through windows,

and the general comfort of their flats are rated at the

highest level by two-third. One third of respondents

also conveyed the highest degree of satisfaction with

the heating and level of humidity in their homes. These

are partially due to the energy measures, as many other

physical elements of the apartments (e.g., layout, day-

lighting), which are in effect there.

High quality landscaped courtyards are a major feature

of Vizion. The 0.5 ha large, “green roof” of the Sainsbury’s

store doubles as a magnificent podium garden for

residents. Frosts, landscape gardeners, won a Bali award

for the garden landscaping in 2009 for these landscaped

communal gardens and pocket park with play facilities.

In a Sustainable Project Appraisal Routine assessment

undertaken by Arup in 2012, the site selection, facilities

management and energy and water use indicators were

all scored as “best practice.” These achievements are

considerable and represent real successes for the scheme.

This development was a significant milestone for the

city centre. It was the first scheme to respond to the new

Development Framework for Central Milton Keynes. The

design and quality of this scheme are very visible, and set

a “benchmark” for future development. The sustainability

measures are invisible - quite ironic considering the

name of the building. The Vizion is an icon, as name

and content coincide perfectly; a landmark for Central

Milton Keynes and answers to the city’s sustainable

development objectives.

2.4 Office of tomorrow - The Pinnacle

The Pinnacle, developed by Hampton Brook, is a

high-quality office scheme incorporating an element

of mixed-use. The design has attracted leading

companies such as Deloitte and Touche. It is the first

BREEAM “Excellent” rated office development in Milton

Keynes using the Building Research Establishment

Environmental Assessment Method, with an A

rating Energy Performance Certificate. It was winner

of an Office Development Award for Sustainable

Achievement. The Pinnacle accommodates three

commercial offices and several smaller retail units, with

over 19,000-m2 commercial space.

The enhanced building fabric was applied to raise the

standard of the building and the thermal characteristics

beyond regulatory requirements. The CONCERTO

standard of insulation was used as a basis for these

offices. Heat, cold and electricity are supplied by the

CHP system.

The Pinnacle uses more energy than was targeted, but

there are good reasons for this. John Piggott (Arup):

“Generally, office space is more utilised now than a few years

ago, as businesses are tending to put more people into the same

space, to get better value for money from their real estate.

Combined with the constant rise in the use of IT, this means that

office space is using more energy. The energy used per employee

is not increasing. So maybe we need to rethink our metrics in

future.”

The Pinnacle Commercial Offices


The Pinnacle Commercial Offices

How do occupants feel about the building? Overall,

survey data (Oxford University / HCA) show that the

building is performing well for the occupants. A quarter

knows the building was connected to a combined

heat and power network. Approximately half knows

the building was designed to be energy efficient and

half of the respondents said they thought the building

was performing efficiently. Only thermal comfort lags

behind, as one-quarter claims their work productivity

is reduced by the environmental conditions in this

building (e.g. thermal, lighting, acoustics). Ruth

Wharton (USEA): “We expected negative responses because

of a resentments against the landlord. But overall, responses

were moderate. Nevertheless the comments called for

implementation of improvements.”


Name (Residential) Measures Number of homes Gross area per house m2

The Vizion (14 blocks)

District heating with Combined Heat and Power

441 61

High insulation

Non-residential Name Measures Buildings / functions Realised Gross m2

The Pinnacle

District heating/cooling with CHP

Office building A 9,010

Office building B 7,396

High insulation

Office building C 1,875

Small retail units 955

The Vizion District heating with CHP

Supermarket 10,000

10 retail units 3,000

Commercial office space 1,100

Total 33,336

Name (Power plants)Installed (kW)

Production (MWh/year) Measures

Energy Station (Combined Heat and Power System) 12,224

Heat: 13,277Electr.: 15,632

Two engines (of 3.07 MWth and 3.04 MWe each)

Connected to 925 residential units (Vizion: 441 and the Hub: 484)

Connected to commercial spaces Vizion and office building the Pinnacle

Photovoltaic Power Plant 165 92 825 panels of 200 Wp each

Total 12,389 15,724 (Electr.) + 13,277 (Heat)

Overview cRRescendo Eco-buildings, renewable energy, and polygeneration in Milton Keynes


2.5 Combined heat and power generation

What it is

Combined Heat and Power (CHP) operates on the

principle of using waste heat of electric power

generation. The heat produced is channelled to heat and

cool buildings and/or provide domestic hot water. In

conventional power plants heat is being wasted, leading

to efficiencies (in the UK) of maximum 60%. In contrast,

Combined heat & power plants can achieve an efficiency

of over 80%. CHP systems are generally most efficient

when there is a mix of demand: residential, retail,

schools/colleges and/or businesses. This mix creates

a more constant need for heat day and night. A CHP is

generally connected to the mains power grid for back up

electricity and the opportunity to sell “excess” electricity

back to the grid.

Steady growth of demand

In 2007, Thameswey Central Milton Keynes Ltd. was

established to construct and operate a Combined

Heat and Power station, to deliver district heating and

electricity via a private wire network to newly developed

areas in Central Milton Keynes. The Energy Station is

located on Avebury Boulevard. Jeremy Draper: “During

design and planning process an objection came up regarding

the 80 m high chimneys, which was thought to spoil the

skyline. But after completion and inclusion in between the

buildings, they proved to be barely visible.”

A 3.04 MWe and 3.07 MWth Combined Heat and Power

(CHP) system was built as part of cRRescendo. A second

engine, of the same size, was added in 2009 to facilitate

expansion of the system (not part of the cRRescendo

project). This increased the total capacity to 6.08 MWe

and 6.14 MWth. At the heart of the station are two CHP

units that are fuelled by natural gas and have an electrical

output of 3.04 MWe each. The area served currently has a

radius of about 1.5 km, and the total area served is 90.000

m2.

But not all buildings were connected from the start.

Rather, a steady growth of connections was realized over

a few years. Initially, in 2007, “the Hub” (a development

comprising 484 apartments, 30 shops and offices) and

the Vizion buildings (with 441 apartments, commercial

outlets and a large Sainsbury store) were connected. Two

years later, the office building Pinnacle was connected.

This required expansion of the Energy Station with the

second engine, maintaining spare capacity for future

residential /commercial development in the west end of

Central Milton Keynes.

CHP is selected by forward-looking organisations as a reliable heating and cooling technology

Energy Station & chimneys

See also page 59 for Case:

Investing in CHP


!Jeremy Draper: “The CHP plant is barely

noticed anymore. I believe an engineer is

successful if it works and nobody notices.

So in my opinion this has been a very

successful project.”

The spare capacity proved valuable, because in 2012,

the Network Rail Headquarters the “Quadrant”

development was connected to the CMK CHP system.

The “Quadrant” development, comprising 38,000 m2

will provide accommodation for approximately 3,000

Network Rail staff. Paul Hammond, Area Manager, MK Land

Team, HCA: This expansion to the Network Rail headquarters

is a strong vote of confidence in the CHP to deliver cost

effective heat and power. They wanted to be associated with

us, a forward looking community, and we of course wanted

those high-value jobs in our town.” The Quadrant is located

outside the original CHP project development area,

and therefore, there was no obligation for the client

to connect to the district CHP system; the decision

for Network Rail to connect to CHP was made on a

comparison, which involved the other energy solutions.

But some negotiation was done: Jeremy Draper: “Instead of

full conformance to the D4 policy, it was agreed to do something

special and to achieve BREEAM Excellent.”

How different from ten years ago. In 2000, in the UK,

experience with CHP and confidence in District Heading

were minimal, because of the imprinted history of bad

projects of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Jon Muncaster:

“The common opinion was: CHP won’t work in this country.

But there was an initiative in Woking for CHP in central town

offices. A visit there made us enthusiastic.” The Chairman

of the Board of Development Corporation suggested

bidding for European money. Jeremy Draper: “This EU

funding made the project financially attractive enough

to go ahead.”

The lesson here is that with modern technology

and management, and with a long-term vision to

exploitation, prejudices can be countered: CHP proves

competitive. The CHP Energy Station has become a

nation-wide example of good practice. Jeremy Draper:

“Our example helped solve the chicken-and-egg problem

around CHP. Without the confidence of an existing scheme, no

one ventured into it. And with no new examples, the prejudice

against it remained alive. Now, project developers are much

more positive towards it. Now the Energy station’s management

is looking for opportunities to expand towards the shopping

centre and the skiing-hall.”Energy flows in the Energy Centre

gas in (boiler, CHP)

100%

generationlosses

32%

elec.

37% elec.

29 %

elec. export 3%

elec. lost 5%

heat

31%

heat

25%

heat lost 6%

heat used other area’s 19%

elec. used other area’s 29%

heat cRRescendo 6%

elec. cRRescendo 9%

ele

c. im

po

rt 9

%


CHP Performance

Taking all flows into account and generation losses

and including electricity import and export, of the

energy flows can be constructed, for instance in a

Sankey Diagram. It unveils the flows and losses that

occur in between the production and the consumption

of electricity and heat and including import and

export of electricity. 38% of the primary energy in the

gas is converted to electricity that can be used for

consumption (including export) and that 25% of the

heat is converted to useful heat for consumption.

Balancing the energy

How do the 4 projects (CHP, Vizion apartments,

Pinnacle offices, and PV) now balance in energy?

The majority of the electricity (86%) and heat (97%)

consumed stems from the CHP plant. It is mainly

used in the private wire system and district heating is

delivered from the CHP engines. There are interesting

opportunities for improvement, but here we focus on

the overall balance.

Energy balance cRResendo project

production

heat

electricity

heat

consumption

electricity

Pinnacle

Pinnacle absorption cooling

Vizion

The Hub

CHP

imports, exports, losses

boiler

The electrical generation efficiency of the CHP was

37% and the thermal efficiency was found to be 30%.

This corresponds to manufacturer’s nominal electrical

efficiency of 42% and thermal efficiency of 43%,

considering the degree of over-sizing of the central plant

to accommodate future expansion. With one of the

machines often all that is required to meet the demand,

and partly operating on part load for significant periods.

And overall 30% of primary energy is saved in Milton

Keynes thanks to cRRescendo. Close to the target of

38%. The reduction in primary energy is partly due to the

increased efficiency of the buildings and partly due to the

CHP. The difference compared to the CONCERTO target is

mainly caused by two effects: a larger energy consumption

of commercial sites e.g. due to large glass surfaces and

high occupation levels in offices, and because the CHP is

operating at partial load, which will improve in the future.

It can be concluded that, on one hand, significant

savings have been achieved. On the other hand, there is

still potential for improvement.


2.6 PV power plant on former bus station

The search for a site

One of the objectives was to develop a “renewable

energy” component in the Sustainable Residential

Quarter in Central Milton Keynes (CMK). Because this

West End development had to be postponed due to

adverse economic conditions an alternative strategy

had to be adopted. In November 2009 the Milton Keynes

Partnership Senior Management Team approved to

install a photovoltaic (PV) array of 165kw in the Centre.

But where to put it?

Most appealing was to incorporate the PV on the Vizion

or Pinnacle. These had already been completed and

negotiations involving the developers and occupiers

ultimately ended unsuccessfully. Another option was a

ring-fenced “ground-level” PV installation on a vacant

site. This option had the advantage of flexibility:

when development of the site took place, the PV

installation could be removed and then “lifted” into

the roof design. However, the costs associated with

ground level location (such as security) and removal and

re-installation at some future date, and the anticipated

disturbance of energy production during a potentially

lengthy relocation period made it unfeasible.

Excellent location

Finally, the former bus station - a property in HCA

freehold ownership - was settled on as the most

appropriate site for the PV installation. It is an

excellent location: a two-storey building with a large

flat, overhanging roof area, open to the sky and not

overshadowed from any direction by any development

or structure. Following a competitive tender process,

the PV installation - one of the largest “retro-fitted” roof

based arrays in the UK to date - was completed in March

2012. In total, 825 panels, made of polycrystalline silicon,

were installed. A mini weather station monitors the

ambient air temperature on the roof. A maintenance

and operation contract between the HCA and the

installing contractor was agreed.

Architectural and roof integrity

One principal planning issue and one technical issue

literally posed “boundary conditions” to the PV system.

The installation had to respect the “architectural

integrity” of the existing building. As a consequence,

and to make the array acceptable in planning (i.e.

development control) terms, the PV arrays have

been installed at an angle of 5°. This slightly reduces

operational output and thus income. The roof of the

bus station had been renewed not long before and

installation of the PV array had therefore not, been

anticipated. The new roof membrane could not be

punctured to facilitate the installation of the PV array.

Consequently, a bespoke engineering design had to be

devised for the supporting “steels” to create a suspended

roof frame, increasing cost.

Electricity sales

The output from the PV is continuously monitored

through a web portal and the energy and carbon data

are prominently displayed at the building entrance. The

first half-year period February - August 2012 showed

that the PV array had generated 92.5 MWh of electricity,

saving 49 tonnes of carbon. The electricity produced is

delivered free of charge to a youth community interest

company. The PV operator sells the excess to energy

company Good Energy. The electricity that is exported

to the grid is monitored and metered on a half-hourly

basis by metering company Stark Energy.

Persistence (time was not on our side)

Ambitious, subsidized projects always are challenging

because application deadlines put pressure on decision

making whereas the waiting time and negotiations

to get approval cost much time. In Milton Keynes, this

played a major role in the final project choice during the

negotiation phase with the EC in 2005/2006. During the

course of this time, numbers of apartments went down,

but the ambitions rose considerably. Brad Hook, United

Sustainable Energy Agency: “And with time, national regulations

changed. Now we even have a feed-in tariff for PV.” Two major

time consuming factors have contributed to the drastic changes:

subsidy negotiations and the financial crisis.

Negotiating subsidy application

Due to the long time period between the submission

of the original bid in December 2003 and completion

of the contract with the EC in July 2005, commercial

and programme pressures forced some of the early

developers to start on site before the CONCERTO

contract and its requirements were finally agreed


PV Installation on former Bus Station, Central Milton Keynes (upper left)

Inverter room PV system (right)

Secondary steelwork structure elevates the PV panels and protects the waterproof roof membrane (lower left)

with the EC. Jon Muncaster: “The result of this was that a

significant portion of the planned developments “the Hub”

in cRRescendo had already been designed and planned by the

time the cRRescendo contract came around. By then, it did not

have sufficient ambition to qualify as cRRescendo development

anymore. As PV panels were planned to be installed on the

original buildings, this also jeopardised the renewable energy

contribution to the project.”

!The flexibility shown by the EC towards

the CONCERTO contract to be revised and

extended was very supportive for

achieving physical deliverables. The

unprecedented economic downturn had a

significant adverse impact on the UK development and

construction industry. This flexibility was also critical to

other European consortium partners. The flexibility

shown by developers of, then, recently completed

schemes was also critical in helping to achieve the

required physical outputs. A search for replacement

projects commenced.

Global financial crisis

The global financial crisis developed since 2007 severely

affected the UK housing market. Results for cRRescendo

were that progress in negotiations for including other

building developments first slowed down and at a later

stage it turned out that the new building plans were

unviable altogether. Jon Muncaster: “The plan was to develop

a “community” in the form of the Sustainable Residential Quarter

located in Central Milton Keynes, centred on the West End Phase

1. This plan was a dramatic leap in quality, with for instance air

tightness unknown in the UK. However, this scheme, comprising

650 homes and a 420 place combined school, stalled when

the global “credit crunch” / banking crisis resulted in economic

downturn. There were too many apartment developments in

preparation.” This has led to the withdrawal of (building

4 Phase 1) / (West End Phase 1) which included the

primary school intended to meet the needs of the larger

community.

Re-Development

So: an empty portfolio. Jon Muncaster: “But we kept

committed to the contract, Milton Keynes could delve into its

array of development plans. The practicality of including an

off-site anaerobic digestion plant was investigated, (fuelled by

kitchen and garden waste) to produce biogas for the CHP unit.

This was not viable for financial reasons.” The Anaerobic

digestion plant is being built, but the gas generated will

be used for a variety of local uses, including replacing

liquid fuels used for waste collection vehicles.

The CONCERTO contract was re-negotiated to

incorporate two previously planned schemes in Vizion

and Pinnacle, including the connection of them to

the Combined Heat & Power (CHP) plant. The CHP

was enlarged to 3 MWe, from the original 1,4 MWe.


Fortunately, the Pinnacle building already incorporated

absorption chillers in the basement, prepared for CHP

connection.

For the incorporation of renewable energy, in Milton

Keynes PV solar energy, it took longer to find a solution.

Paul Hammond: “Finally, the roof of the former bus stations was

found to be suitable for installing 165 kWp of PV panels. The

bus station functions as a home for a community interest group

which helps young people. It is located just across the road west

of the original cRRescendo project area and south-west of The

Pinnacle.”

This resulted in a smaller and less centralised project

than anticipated, but still with significant savings over

business as usual. And a close-knit suite of projects:

CHP, offices, dwellings, and PV plant. Thanks to

persistence on many sides. And everybody agrees, these

have been realised because of cRRescendo.

National/local partnering

!The primary stakeholders have been

English Partnerships/HCA and Milton

Keynes Council, with planning and

development powers, showing political

commitment and financial commitment and

owning land interests. The positive dynamic between EP/

HCA and MKC illustrates how organisations working to

different national and local “drivers”, and assisted by the

valuable input of other consortium partners, effectively

combined to realise common sustainable development

objectives through the cRRescendo programme. A good

“connect” was established with other partners [e.g. Arup,

ECIOU, NEF and USEA] who have been principally

concerned with providing technical input, monitoring

outputs, undertaking research and associated report

production. The influence of MKC principally derives from

a combination its political power [e.g. local democratic

mandate] and statutory planning responsibilities; to

include “plan making” and “development control.”

2.7 Moving forward

Milton Keynes has joined numerous ambitious national

and international initiatives and networks. Jeremy

Draper: “We signed the Nottingham Declaration on Climate

Change, agreed in the frame of the LSP Local Area Agreement

on a carbon reduction target of 12% by 2019, and joined the EU

Covenant of Mayors, which required cuts in carbon emissions by

at least 20% by 2020.” Eventually the “Low Carbon Living

Strategy and Action Plan” was published by the Council in

2010, with the aim to target an overall carbon emission

reduction of 40% per person, and to place Milton Keynes

at the forefront of low carbon living, nationally and

internationally.

Spreading the word

The cRRescendo projects were highlighted and promoted

at the Low Carbon Living Seminar, held at Stadium: MK,

in December 2011. A further workshop was held with

stakeholders and cRRescendo partners in June 2012 to

disseminate information about the recently completed

PV installation.

Ian Byrne, Deputy Director, National Energy Foundation: “A

major benefit of the scheme has been to showcase the ability

of designers and developers to meet a benchmark with the low

energy requirements of the project, in the heart of a developing

city.”

This provides evidence that developers, in conjunction

with city planners can affect the market for low energy

housing and offices.

Development power and land interests

English Partnerships/HCA assumed “lead partner”

status in the Milton Keynes cRRescendo consortium

as a consequence of its planning & development

role and its ability to provide investment. The

designation of Milton Keynes as a “Growth Area” in the

Sustainable Communities Plan (ODPM, 2003) led to

the establishment of the Milton Keynes Partnership

(MKP) local delivery vehicle; a sub-committee of English

Land ownership is of great help to municipalities in ambition setting and maintaining


Partnership for implementation support for the physical

elements of the project (i.e. development). From the

Agency’s perspective, the initiative was corporately

driven. EP’s/HCA’s National Consultancy Unit

championed involvement in the project, negotiated the

associated contracts, and subsequently managed and

co-ordinated the European element of the project (e.g.

“City Co-ordinator” role and EU grant claim).

Basically, HCA had significant land interests in Milton

Keynes. The Agency owned in excess of 550 hectares of

land in Milton Keynes. This ownership included some

strategic land parcels in Central Milton Keynes, which

became the focus for cRRescendo/CONCERTO related

developments. As a consequence of its land ownership

HCA was also able to produce development briefs for

its sites which sought to “raise the bar” in terms of the

design and sustainability of development.

Involving the architect

With regard to securing planning permission for the

PV installation, commissioning the involvement of

the architect who had originally designed the former

bus station in CMK was, in hindsight, very beneficial

since this arguably expedited both achievement of the

required planning consent and, indeed, subsequent

installation of the PV array in accordance with the

West-End 1 development plan (not yet realised)

Retrofitting a building with solar energy can be a balancing act. The original architect can help find the equilibrium

project timeframe. Paul Hammond: “The “retro-fit” PV

installation represented a compromise between, on the one

hand, planning, building and technical constraints and, on the

other hand, the aspiration to reduce carbon emissions through

the delivery of a renewable energy system. Having the original

architect on board helped pave the way and find acceptable

solutions.” This compromise may have resulted in a

more costly - and marginally “sub-optimal” - PV array.

Nevertheless, the installation successfully fulfilled the

cRRescendo/CONCERTO renewable energy objective

whilst also addressing a variety of policy and technical

requirements.

Moving forward

It is clear that Milton Keynes has the capability to

develop low-carbon buildings. And moving on is needed.

New, more advanced policies are under development,

and the first “carbon-negative” building, a school, is

on the drawing board. Jeremy Draper: “Maybe we did not

publicise our achievements as much as we could have but we

are still proud of the powerful combination of forward looking

policies and projects generated by cRRescendo.”


To support learning across projects the EC organised CONCERTO+ Premium activities.

In the European events in Brussels, our partners very much appreciated learning about

the results from other CONCERTO projects. In the national events, where more partners

attended due to less travel time, they appreciated talking in their own language about the

CONCERTO communities in their own country. Both were evaluated as key dissemination

actions.

Environmental education is a learning process that increases people’s knowledge and

awareness about the environment and associated challenges. It develops the necessary skills

and expertise to address the challenges, and fosters attitudes, motivations, and commitments

to make informed decisions and take responsible action (UNESCO, Tbilisi Declaration, 1978).

Energy education is a subset of environmental education. It focuses on increasing public

knowledge about the impacts of energy production and consumption. Energy training, on the

other hand, is a much more intensive process than education. It focuses on building skills for

experts interested in working in the field.

cRRescendo’s final dissemination activity was the successful cRRescendo ConfeRRence,

Step by step towards a carbon neutral built environment, held in October 2011 in the city of

Almere. 126 participants listened to high-level presentations and involved in lively discussions

on the results and impact of the project. All aiming to convince stakeholders that large scale

climate-neutral building is possible in the foreseeable future (2020). The proceedings can be

downloaded from www.cRRescendo.net.

Energy Rich activities to involve Almere residents

Communication experts advised that the

name cRRescendo would not resonate

enough with the local community. Therefore

the name Energy Rich (EnergieRijk in Dutch)

was invented. Under Energy Rich various

activities were organized for residents of the

communities and Almere in general:

- Opening festivities

- Open days

- Photo contest

- Treasure Hunts

- Educational activities

- Out-of-school events like

in the community

information centre Klokhuis

(opening by Queen Maxima, see picture).

After the delivery of Solar or Passive houses,

instructions were given to residents on how

to use their sustainable house or PV system.

Almere developed a sustainability training

and toolbox for residents who want to build

their own houses. These Private Contractors

are a new phenomenon in the Netherlands.

This toolbox included a voucher for free

professional advice on sustainable building.

In addition to residents, training was also

provided to professional target groups.

Training activities differed from sharing

general knowledge and lessons learned, to

very practical ones like on how to build energy

efficient houses or how to advise private

contractors on sustainable building.

Sharing local learnings

http://www.crrescendo.net


Enduring impact through Milton Keynes professionals

Milton Keynes has given priority to the training

of professional stakeholders and target groups

(although involved residents have also been

reached). Throughout the duration of the

project, training courses for design teams, PV

specialist installers, and building managers

have been offered. The project was closed in the

Low Carbon Living conference and exhibition

in 2011, highlighting the contribution of

cRRescendo.

The aim of almost zero-carbon buildings

could not be maintained due to the recession.

This resulted in disappointment for those

professionals involved from the very beginning.

Professionals more recently involved are on

the contrary very satisfied. They see that the

four developments are excellent examples for

stakeholders to replicate in a world in which the

sky is not the limit anymore.

Three demonstrations already have significant

impact on the development of building in both

Milton Keynes and the UK - some of them have

even shifted paradigms:

- The cogeneration heat/power plant is

followed throughout the UK;

- The ambitious Pinnacle office building was

followed by the NetworkRail headquarter in

Milton Keynes;

- The residential block Vizion is planned to be

copied just across the road;

- The Vizion residence is very popular among

residents despite the crisis.

Intensifying communication between stakeholders in Ajaccio

With regard to sustainable development, Corsica

was lagging behind other regions in France at

start of the cRRescendo project. To prepare the

refurbishment activities it was necessary for

the different stakeholders to work together. In

Ajaccio we learned that (to be equally successful

and timely realised) a refurbishment project

needs to be further prepared than a new building

project. A refurbishment is more complicated

in decision-making, and the residents that are

involved are not always willing or able to pay for

the improvement, even when it is economically

feasible.

As a result of cRRescendo, engineers and

architects in Corsica learned to communicate.

The municipality and the housing corporation

started to interact, and developers and residents

learned to understand each other. Excursions

to other cities of France and Europe (e.g. by

the mayor and professionals) stimulated the

conceptualisation of a more sustainable Ajaccio

and other parts of the island via a covenant

between 20 mayors on Corsica.

In the first cRRescendo training for architects

and decision makers it was concluded that

there was a severe lack of knowledge on the

island. In March 2012, to solve this Ademe gave

an in-depth training on the environmental

quality of buildings to about 20 architects.

Subsequently Ademe organized information

sessions in six micro-regions of Corsica, attended

by 25 professionals each, about the new thermal

regulation for new building called RT 2012.

Education for a sustainable future in Viladecans

From the cRRescendo cities Viladecans was

hit hardest by the economic recession and had

the greatest change between planned and

realised activities. Therefore, more efforts

were directed to general and professional

education for establishing the basis for future

sustainable development.

Over a four-year period, more than 1,000

children participated in 29 energy education

workshops.

These workshops ranged in topic from solar

kitchens, photovoltaic energy, solar thermal

energy to energy efficiency.

In addition 44 adults received training,

distributed across three different courses:

- A solar thermal and photovoltaic

installations course for unemployed people

from the building sector;

- Two full week courses on the assembly and

maintenance of solar thermal collectors;

- A full week course on the assembly and

maintenance of solar photovoltaic panels.

Viladecans also did substantial public

outreach and awareness activities. The

activities varied from a mobile municipal

office for informing citizens and a sustainable

house for the general public, to brochures

about the sustainable developments and

workshops for over 200 children (Solar Sports

Cars and Penguins Against Climate Change).


3.1 Ajaccio – the scene

Ancient historic capital

Ajaccio is the ancient capital of Corsica with

65,000 inhabitants covering 82 km2. Ajaccio

is located on the Mediterranean coast with a

lively marina. The historical centre consists

mainly of old buildings. Since 2004, it falls

under the “Protection of Architectural, Urban

and Landscape Heritage”. The buildings

in the town centre as well as the suburb

areas are energy inefficient. Expansions

around the centre contain many 1960’s

apartment buildings, many in urgent need

of renewing. In 2002, a significant urban

renewal programme was started by the

City of Ajaccio, together with ADEME.

The programme includes several energy

measures.

!Facing the technological and financial

challenges of the more sustainable renewal

programme, Ajaccio decided to explore

international co-operation options.

Fast adoption of sustainability

At the launch of CONCERTO Ajaccio became more aware

of the need to reduce public energy consumption as well

as the energy use of social buildings tenants. The steps

towards a better quality of life, and with greater respect

of the environment were gradually set up. Virginie Bollini,

cRRescendo project manager at Ademe: “Until the early 2000’s

the city had little awareness for an environmental approach

towards buildings. Through the inception of the cRRescendo

project Ajaccio’s understanding and involvement grew towards

more conscious politics on the environmental issue.” The

ambitions of Ajaccio increased during the course of

the project. Virginie Bollini: “In 2005 approx. 300 apartment

refurbishments were planned whereas now more than 425 have

been realised.”

Sustainable renovation Ajaccio

33.1 Ajaccio – the scene

3.2 A suite of projects

3.3 Performance – occupant behaviour

3.4 Moving forward

“We have changed the way we

renovate. And rather than tackling

single buildings, we are now

developing ideas for “eco-quartiers”.

We will be moving strongly towards

a smart low-carbon city. With the

experience built up and our iconic

energy-positive building, we are

confident to get there.”

Simon Renucci, Mayor Ajaccio

sustainable renovation 49

Ajaccio

The fast growing environmental awareness was

enormously aided by the international project.

Virginie Bollini: “Discussions and exchanges with cRRescendo

partners, Almere in the Netherlands; Milton Keynes in the

United Kingdom and Viladecans in Spain, helped by sharing

experiences. The annual meetings enabled us to observe the

different approaches implemented in other parts of Europe.”

At the same time, the French National Programme

for Urban Renewal (Ajaccio belongs to since 2007)

enabled social landlords to rehabilitate their ageing

housing stock by implementing money-saving and

energy saving or even energy-producing building

improvements. Virginie Bollini: “In 2003, at the start of our

project, the French national regulation was not as ambitious as

the CONCERTO energy requirements. The national regulation

on energy efficiency was sharpened in 2006 and 2009 and now

supersedes CONCERTO requirements for new-built, but still

there are no regulations for refurbishments.”

As new large scale

urban developments are

multi-year projects even

ambitious requirements

may be surpassed

by new regulations,

lowering the possibility

to serve as an exemplar

project for a longer

period. Integration of

an extra high-ambition

“Icon” project in the

developments, will

extend this exemplar

role.

Ground plan of Ajaccio with cRRescendo developments


The building and technical companies developed along

similar lines, but not automatically. Virginie Bollini: “In the

beginning it was hard to find specialists. And the slow tender

process for the Energy Positive building and the industry status

according to the CERC survey, inspired Ademe to organise an

architect training course on Corsica. The first in 2010, and the

second in 2012.” As a result, 20 professionals from the

industry gained knowledge on environmental quality.

But even here hurdles occurred: the small size of most

enterprises (typical only several employees) led to the

issue that they cannot miss the workable hours “lost” on

training.

3.2 A suite of projects

Ajaccio set out to implement a suite of projects:

refurbishments and new developments (demolish and

build) with and without solar energy installations, in

the ancient centre and in the 1960’s expansions. In that

way, a wide-ranging experience would be gained fast

on a variety of buildings and procedures. This proved

a sensible approach: each development had its own

peculiarities and pitfalls, and different stakeholders

influencing progress and quality.

The refurbishments should serve a dual purpose: reduce

CO2 emissions in the atmosphere and reduce the rent for

tenants by lower service costs. Virginie Bollini: “A domestic

hot water system fed by solar thermal collectors rather than

gas fired boilers and better building insulation were expected to

reduce the use of heating in winter.”

The new buildings offered the opportunity to engage in

high ambitions. In Ajaccio, public buildings like schools

which are part of the urban renewal project in priority

areas, are built in compliance with High Environmental

Quality Standards (HQE, France) aiming at zero energy

consumption. Even more ambitious is the “iconic”

Maison de quartier des Cannes, which is developed

under cRRescendo and will be built in 2014. The new

building is an “energy-positive” building, which will

produce more electricity than it consumes.

Old centre solar systems - cancelled due to roof restrictions

Refurbishments on buildings located in the old

centre are eligible for interventions financed by the

“Programmed operation for the improvement of the

housing environment”. In particular the installation

of solar thermal collectors and photovoltaic panels

are eligible. The Housing Rehabilitation Programme

was launched by Ajaccio city in 2006 to increase

refurbishment within the city. Denis Bravi, project manager

at Ajaccio Municipality mentions: “Our first idea was to work

on 10 buildings situated in the old centre of the town. The

Municipality began searching for buildings in need of heavy

refurbishing, and more specifically on roof works, in order to

install solar thermal systems on these roofs. It was easy at start

to find willing owners in the old centre.”

But later three different problems emerged:

- The heritage protection rules specify that roof works

can only be carried out if not visible from public space,

i.e. from the pavements. This limits the use of solar

systems.

- Most streets in the historical centre are orientated

East-West and have facetted roofs with different

heights that create a lot of shading. Those facing

south are often visible from the street and thus

forbidden for use.

- In narrow streets there is often shading from buildings

on the other side.

Shadow casting in old city centre

See also page 60 for Case:

Refurbishment for social

owners: another cup of

tea


Residential NameNumber of homes

Gross area per house (m2)

Measures Solar

Rue de la Porta (1 new building)

8 75

Solar PV panels

5,5 kWp12 m2

Solar collectors

High energy performance building envelop

Monte e Mare (2 renovated buildings)

91 70

Solar collectors

98 m2

Refurbishment heating system

St Paul (2 renovated buildings)

52 70

Solar collectors

94 m2

Improved ventilation, heating and lighting system

Improved roof insulation

Installation of Casa system

St Jean 2 (4 renovated buildings)

196 117


Double-glazed windows

Insulation of exterior walls and roof

Pietralba 2 (10 renovated buildings)

80 87


142 m2

Solar collectors

Double-glazed windows

Insulation of exterior walls, floor, and roof

Installation of Casa system

Total dwellings 427

Office buildingsName

Number of buildings

Planned Gross m2 Measures Solar

Les Cannes, new public service building (construction 2014)

1 1,000

Solar panels

200 m2

Urban wind turbines

Ambitious specifications for insulation and ventilation resulting in an energy positive building

Total office buildings 1 1,000

Overview cRRescendo Eco-buildings, and renewable energy in Ajaccio


Renovated building St. Jean

Renovated building Pietralba

Renovated building St. Paul

With these restrictions much fewer buildings then

expected were identified and none were refurbished.

This highlights the important difference between new

development and refurbishment projects. In the latter

the current inhabitants are the main decision makers and

very diverse. In addition the situation of each building may

differ and plays an important role.

New area refurbishments finally successful

In the new areas of Ajaccio a renovation project was

initiated in a zone defined as the French Sensitive Urban

Areas. In total 419 homes were renovated spread over 19

buildings named: Monte e Mare, St Paul buildings, St Jean-

2, and Pietralba-2 buildings.

Part of the renovation plan was the introduction of solar

thermal collectors. For this technique an issue arose

regarding the ownership of the dwellings. A social owner:

“If Isupport the cost of the works, I have no return on investment if

I cannot raise the rent, as the benefits go to the tenants saving on

their energy bills.”

The municipality rapidly realised the unfairness of the

distribution of the benefits between private flats owners

and social tenants. Therefore the strategy was changed.

Ajaccio approached the social owners to also take part in

the cRRescendo project, resulting in a lower investment

due to European subsidy. Denis Bravi: “Several meetings were

organised with co-owners of private buildings, in order to study

the feasibility to install thermal solar systems on roofs with them.

Both collective private housing and houses owned by a housing

association were then equipped in particular with solar collectors

for domestic hot water.”

There also was a plan to install solar (PV) panels on all the

buildings (119 homes) of the community St Jean 1. This was

feasible with the feed-in tariff for electricity in 2009 of

0.44 €/kWh. Unfortunately the feed-in tariff was lowered

to 0.12 €/kWh by 2011. This lower feed-in tariff made the

panels completely unfeasible for the building owners.

! Because the buildings of Saint Paul were

already better than other buildings in the

area, the extra effort to insulate the walls,

ground floor and windows turned out to be

not feasible for the building owners. It was decided to

concentrate on the measures that had the highest effect

on the savings for the inhabitants, such as roof insulation

and a solar hot water system.


New apartments in heritage area built to high standards

The unsafe and unhealthy apartment building in the city

at Rue de la Porta 3, owned by a housing association had

to be replaced. It was agreed to demolish and rebuild

it according to the French High Environmental Quality

Standards (National regulations for green buildings in

France). Denis Bravi: “Then local interest groups successfully

campaigned to ensure to conserve the architectural heritage.

One of the outcomes: solar panels were only acceptable when

not facing the public street, i.e. facing the courtyard.”

The new apartment building is made in Siporex – a

first for a 4-storey building in Corsica. Siporex is a

lightweight concrete. It is available as blocks and pre-

cast reinforced units for floors, roofs, and walls. This

material has a high energy performance.

New building in city centre,

Rue de La Porta

The roof was designed with a south orientation to the

sun with no visual impact from the street, and was

equipped with solar systems. No less than 3 different

solar systems were mounted. A solar thermal system (12

m²) was installed to produce hot water for sanitary use.

Two air-type solar collectors were installed on the upper

part of the south front wall of the staircase. They reheat

and ventilate the building’s staircase, minimising heat

loss between the landing doors and the common parts.

And finally 32.5 m²of photovoltaic panels were installed

to produce electricity, the sale of which will cover part

of the extra cost incurred by achieving the so called High

Environmental Quality Standards. Virginie Bollini: “The

heritage rules unfortunately led to partial shading of the system

during certain daytimes.”

Evolution of an “energy-positive” building

The 1000 m2 public building “La Maison de quartier

des Cannes” was developed on land made available by

demolishing an older building in the middle of the “Les

Cannes” district. Originally it was planned to reach

the High Environmental Quality Standards. Virginie

Bollini: “In 2010 a call for tender was launched by ADEME on

a regional level for architects to design an exemplar building,

with ambitious specifications. The winning architects conceived

an “energy-positive” building: It will produce more energy

than it needs, because it is fitted with 200 m² of photovoltaic

panels. A great, but realistic design. This extremely high result

for the public building would not be possible without the

cooperation and exchanges with Almere and Milton Keynes in

the cRRescendo project.”

! Thanks to the ambitious specifications of

the competition to select an architect the

objective of a zero energy building,

producing the total of its needs in energy,

has established itself as a realistic solution.

Realising the ambitious plans of the winning architect

proved more difficult than anticipated. Its originality,

specifics and its innovativeness as the first building of

this type in Corsica made the discussions, drawing up

of the requirements, and the consultation procedures

for contractors a rather long venture. The construction

tender went out included in a Corsica-wide call for

several energy-efficient buildings. Twenty subscribers

developed plans. These plans did not contain feasible

plans for the zero energy building. Virginie Bollini: “Ajaccio’s


Energy-Positive building remained on the loose for over a year.

Therefore Ajaccio had to launch a new specific tender procedure,

with more success.”

It shows that visionary ambitions can be adhered to,

and ambitions can be increased rather than downsized!

Although substantially delayed, the public office

building will be built in 2014 and is more advanced than

initially envisioned. Denis Bravi: “We learned from other

cRRescendo cities, we set high ambitions for the architect, and

we gave the architect the freedom to choose how to realise these

ambitions. Corsica needs buildings like these.”

Solar energy systems – thermal and electric

Solar thermal hot water systems and one solar PV

systems were mounted on part of the buildings, for a

total of 346 m2 respectively 5,5 kWp.

3.3 Performance – occupant behaviour

Combine social and technical monitoring

Both national regulation and CONCERTO standards

calculate energy performance using building

parameters, but do not account for occupancy. It is

well known that occupant behaviour and occupancy

numbers are very influential on the energy bill. The

extent of that effect is shown in the monitoring results

Solar thermal system Ajaccio, Pietralba

Energy-positive public services building

Combine technical and social monitoring, to understand data and take appropriate action


of Ajaccio. Virginie Bollini: “We think it is better to combine

technical and social monitoring and do it with a locally known

partner. Interventions on energy behaviour should be taken after

starting the monitoring.”

Heating on demand

In Monte e Mare, the heat consumption was measured

with sensors and data loggers. Heat consumption

varied enormously from one apartment to another,

with the highest consumption 10 times that of the

lowest. These differences may be due to a variation

in set temperature, the duration of heating, varying

occupancy, and ventilation preferences. One poorer

inhabitant is very clear on his heating strategy: “When I don”t

have money, I just switch the heating off, whether it’s cold or

not.”

Public servants learning to conserve energy

How do occupants influence the performance of

public office buildings in the St. Jean area? Reference

monitoring values are available for a similar office

building in the area. The measured consumption in

the reference situation is much higher than one would

expect, the electricity consumption as well as the heat

consumption. Virginie Bollini: “Inspection of the building

during the monitoring period revealed several things. First,

during daytime lights are on: not all window shutters were

opened during the day, and the light is not switched off after

use in the toilet. Second, computers were not switched to low-

energy mode during lunch break, and third many devices remain

on standby at all the time (computers, printers, DVD players),

explaining the high night-time consumption (20% of the day-

time peak).”

Risk perception and money saving

Solar hot water systems concern a technology for which

Corsica has a reasonably well-developed industry

compared with other regions of France. That does not

mean that solar thermal technology is fully normalised

across Corsican society, while some actors associate

risks with the technology because it is still relatively

unknown. The perception of risk for maintenance has

even led to the creation of a new service charge for

residents in the Monte e Mare apartment building.

Some residents fear now that the system which they

had been told would save them money on energy bills

may see them actually becoming worse off overall.

A resident survey on people’s general understanding

and familiarity with sustainable technology pointed out

several interesting issues, such as the anxiety regarding

the risk and regulation associated with the Legionella

bacterium in solar hot water systems. But like one

inhabitant puts it: “I don”t know how it works but I save

money with the collectors.”

3.4 Moving forward

The Corsican building industry

In 2011, the French national network of Construction

Economics Groups (Cellules Economiques Regionales

de la Construction, CERC) surveyed industry

representatives in 30 French employment districts,

including Ajaccio District and Southern Corsica. It

gives a comparative snapshot of the construction

industry in economic activity in two sectors: low-

energy construction and installation of renewable

energy technologies. The survey focused in particular

on the needs for new competences among building

and renewable energy professionals in the short- to

medium-term.

Large variation in electricity use for heating, 10 households, Monte e Mare

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

households

annual heating energy (kWh/m2/year


Organise regional dissemination and showcase the feasibility and attractiveness of your eco-buildings.

In France, construction accounts on average for

10% of the economy, but the Ajaccio district scores

substantially above average: 13% and in Southern

Corsica even 16%. Spending on low-energy and low-

impact buildings in Southern Corsica takes 13% of all

construction budgets, lower than the national median

of 16%, and half of the highest-spending districts (25%) in

France.

Low-energy refurbishment projects are clearly an

underdeveloped competence on Corsica during our

project. Another study however shows that Corsica has

a higher number of solar thermal installation companies

per capita compared to the France, and a somewhat

developed PV industry.

! But change comes fast: early 2011, in

Corsica there were no labelled low energy

buildings. Now an impressive 86 projects

are seeking the relevant so called BBC

(Bâtiment Basse Consommation) approval.

Virginie Bollini: “Ajaccio’s cRRescendo project and the architect

training course have certainly contributed to this development.”

Spreading the word

The cRRescendo funding has been used to add funds

to larger budgets, such that renewable energy and

energy-efficient “extras” have been incorporated into

larger projects – either renovations of existing buildings

or construction of new buildings. For the apartment

building renovation in St. Paul, the proportion of

CONCERTO funds relative to the total was 2.1% of

the total capital budget. However, the impact of

cRRescendo may prove to be greater than the financial

contribution.

! The interest in the Mayor’s office in now

developing an entire neighbourhood to be

more sustainable should be seen in the

context of Ajaccio winning the status of

project partner on the cRRescendo project.

Virginie Bollini: “Now, the Mayors are convinced they can

change the way we renovate. They take action and actively

spread that believe around. And rather than tackling single

buildings, we are now developing ideas for “eco-quartiers”,

districts involving 200-500 homes within the Agenda 21

programme”.

One impact of having Ajaccio associated with a

prestigious EU-funded programme may prove to be a

stronger commitment to sustainable development in

general among the local politicians and government

officials. And Ajaccio sets an example and spreads the

word. Virginie Bollini: “In the greater Ajaccio area, the 10

-municipality Commune d”Aglomeration de Pays Ajaccio, now

officially adheres to the objective to reduce greenhouse gas

emissions.” And Ajaccio’s renovations form showcases on

the feasibility of those.

Solar thermal collector field aside a residential building


Economics needs replication

The measures implemented in the cRRescendo project are substantial, and costs are

considerable. Are these costs earned back in a reasonable time period? And how about

replication? No easy questions to answer. On these pages we analyse four cases: new

passive homes, a CHP plant, refurbishment for social housing, and a smart school.

Serial-built Passive Houses in the rental sector (Almere)

Many see passive houses as a solution to

tackle the problems of ever rising energy

bills, scarcity of energy resources and

climate change in the housing sector.

Within Columbuskwartier the developer

AM (supported by many others) realized

a project with 103 passive houses for the

Urban Housing foundation Goede Stede. This

project was innovative and unique (in the

Netherlands) because the houses were built

on a large scale and in a serial way, instead

of being a (single) pilot case. A standardised

building process forms the basis of this

concept with the possibility to still create a

large variation of houses.

The focus was on optimising the technology;

economic optimisation would follow

afterwards. In the design phase the comfort

and energy costs of the occupant played a

decisive role. Through the project a reference

was created towards serial energy neutral

houses.

At the start of the project the total additional

costs were estimated to be €12,000 per

house, consisting of €6,000 for the building

construction, and €6,000 for other costs

like installations. The costs for solar PV

were not included (but paid by NUON and

cRRescendo subsidy) and the payback period

was estimated on 30 years. In practice

these costs however turned out to be higher

than expected due to specific incidental

reasons: €20,500 per house. Especially the

construction costs turned out to be much

higher at €16,000 per house.

However it is expected that through

repetition and market development costs can

be considerably reduced to €7,000, consisting

of €4,500 for construction and €2,500 for

other costs. These other costs will by then

only be caused by additional material use (e.g.

for insulation), but not for building activities.

Through this the payback time could drop to

15 to 20 years in the short term. On the longer

term payback times of below 10 years could

be possible, considering the fact that building

standards will increase as well.

Project developer AM (BAM) foresees

the following actions for a full market

introduction:

- Creating a communication plan about the

passive house for inhabitants;

- Initiating further product development

including the industrialisation of

components to reduce the work on the

building ground. This should lead to quality

improvements, and cost reductions.

- Striving to a large degree of standardisation

in the production of passive houses, leading

to high quality levels, with room for choice.

The knowledge which AM has built up

during this project has already been used

for the development of a very energy

efficient apartment complex (Kotmanpark in

Enschede, the Netherlands). In recent years

several other serial passive house concepts

have been realized.

Passive building is a generic term for a way of

building aiming at a healthy and comfortable

inner climate without traditional heating

or cooling systems. The energy demand for

heating and cooling needs to be maximized

on 15 kWh per square meter of living space

per year. Furthermore there are demands

for the total primary energy demand for all

households appliances, hot water and cooling

per year (120 kWh/m2). Renewable energy

sources are used to fill in the remaining

energy need. Through this a passive house

has an energy saving of approximately 80%

compared to a regular new house.


Investing in CHP (Milton Keynes)

The MK Combined Heat and Power (CHP)

plant, delivered by Thameswey Ltd, plays a

central role within the Milton Keynes demo

project. Using a pioneering approach by

working on a large scale with residential,

commercial and retail developers the first

multi-phase multi-developer CHP system of

its type in the UK came to be. A system that

now successfully provides energy to over

45,500m2 of commercial and retail space and

929 residential units. But how did this capital

intensive project come to be?

Core to the business case of the CHP plant

is the Project Development Agreement

(“PDA”), between Thamesway and the Homes

and Communities Agency (HCA). It gives

Thamesway the exclusive right to supply

heat and power to all developments within a

defined area in Central Milton Keynes (CMK),

but only for a competitive price. Developers

in this area are required to enter into a Phase

Project Development Agreement (PPDA)

which commit them to use the CHP system as

long as it is financially viable for both parties:

1 Connection costs paid by developers to

Thameswey must equal to the avoided costs

(compared to traditional heat and power).

2 A reasonable rate of return on the equity

investments of Thamesway. It is understood

that in this specific pilot this rate of return is

12%, and that the majority of the investment

in the scheme is debt funded.

3 HCA can gap fund the project if it falls short

of being financially viable.

Gap Funding

The CHP plant was constructed in 2007 and

was able to successfully supply power and

heat to the Hub and Vizion developments,

without any gap funding requirement. In

2009 however this situation changed when

Thameswey was contractually committed

to provide heat and power to the B3.2N

(Pinnacle) office development. Although

calculations indicated that CO2 savings of

400t/year could be expected, one of the

key issues were the infrastructural costs

for the expansion of the existing system

for Pinnacle but also for other future

developments. The upfront investment costs

were higher due to the extended distance

to Pinnacle, and the additional advanced

infrastructure required (a new sub-station

and high-voltage ring main) to facilitated the

connection of future development in CMK (to

reach the full capacity of Energy Station 1).

Studies indicated that an additional capital

contribution of around 6% for Pinnacle alone,

and 30% of the total expansion investments

were needed to make the scheme viable.

Overall, looking to the total CHP system,

it is understood that the total private

investment to date in the CHP systems is

roughly £20 million. This comprises the

investment of Thameswey and the developer

payments (avoided costs). Additionally /HCA’s

contribution is understood to be roughly

of £3m which is about 13% of the total costs

of delivering the CHP. However with the

assistance of government agency funding

the infrastructure is now effectively “future

proofed”, and in addition this sum is repayable

to the Agency if/when Thameswey exceed the

target rate of return in the future. In practice

the economic climate has resulted in a

delayed development of the area (not as many

consumers as anticipated yet). Therefore

Thamesway’s current ROI is lower than

expected: just above 5% compared with the

targeted 12%. However the position of Milton

Keynes as one of the fastest centres of growth

in the UK means that the long-term outlook

remains positive.

Successful repetition in the UK

Overall the CHP demo has been a success: the

system proved to be technically sound but

also (on the longer run) economically viable. It

is therefore viewed as an exemplar project for

others, and one with serious follow-up from

local up to national level:

- In 2012, after cRRescendo, the BREEAM

“Excellent” rated Network Rail development

called Quadrant, comprising 38,000 sq.m.

was connected to the CMK CHP system.

The Quadrant had no obligation to connect

to the district CHP system, and made a

comparison with other, competing, energy

providers. This voluntary expansion is a

good indicator of the confidence in the CHP

business case.

- Thameswey also has an increasing number

of local Councils that approach them for

consultancy or joint ventures.

- And in recent years CHP projects is seen as a

popular low carbon measure across the UK.

Foto left: CHP plant in Milton Keynesis based on a Jenbacher cogeneration unit

Foto right: Network Rail’s Quadrant building: 38,000 sq.m. office space connected to CHP in 2012


Refurbishment for social owners: another cup of tea (Ajaccio)

Different than in all other cRRescendo

communities in Ajaccio the focus was on

refurbishment instead of new developments.

In refurbishments projects a new stakeholder

comes into play: the current inhabitant. It

turned out that the development process

in Ajaccio was intrinsically slower and the

outcomes were less predictable. In addition

we saw that the recession that hit Viladecans

and Milton-Keynes so hard, had a lower

impact on the refurbishment in Ajaccio.

During this project we however learned

refurbishment not only radically changes

the decision making process, but also

the business case behind additional

improvements relating energy efficiency. An

additional challenge was that renovations

were planned in relatively low-income areas

of Ajaccio. A first issue that arose was that,

regardless many information meetings, we

were not able to convince the private owners

to commit themselves in doing part of the

investment, even when pay back periods were

low.

In Ajaccio the solution was found through

the introduction of two social house owners

in Corsica: Erilia and OPH Sud (Office Public

de l”Habitat). OPH is the territorial company

for social housing in the south of Corsica. Its

rents are about twice lower than standards

(about €5.- per square meter), and owns 1700

social homes rented to modest families, of

which a part was in need of renovation. The

solution was however not easy as the benefits

of energy savings end up with the tenants’

trough lower energy bills, and the fact that

raising rents based on energy savings is not

allowed in France.

Regardless the lack of a solid business case,

OPH (and Erilia) however was strongly inclined

to improve the quality of life and reduce the

energy costs of their tenants. Thanks to a

combination of this ambition and additional

support from the municipality and the

cRRescendo project for the most ambitious

measures, it proved possible to find sufficient

funds for making the very substantial

investments.

For OPH the total investments for the three

main projects (St Jean 2, Pietralba 2 and Saint

Paul) added up to €10.4 million! In addition over

€155,000.- was spend on technical research

and feasibility studies to create the plans for

these projects. The table below summarizes

the measures.

The renovation measures were implemented

based upon the tenant’s request. Besides the

buildings themselves, a lot of effort was done

by the city and the social landlords to improve

the surroundings and public space in the area.

One of these efforts includes creating family

gardens for the inhabitants to interact and

grow their own food. This combination has

finally led to very positive feedback and high

satisfaction levels among the tenants.

Measures St Jean 2 (4 buildings, 196 homes)

Pietralba 2(10 buildings, 80 homes)

Saint Paul(52 apartments)

Total investment costs €4.9 million €3.5 million €2 million

Insulation of the exterior walls (regulation: 0.5 W/m2K) 0.32 [W/m2K] 0.32 [W/m2K] No works

Improvement of roof insulation (regulation: 0.4 W/m2K) 0.28 [W/m2K] 0.28 [W/m2K] 0.33 [W/m2K]

Insulation of the Ground floors (regulation: 0.5 W/m2K) No works 0.37 [W/m2K] No works

Installation of efficient lighting 12% savings 12% savings 15% savings

Replacement of the entry doors Yes Yes Yes

Installation of mechanical ventilation 1.4 air changes/hr 1.4 air changes/hr 1.4 air changes/hr

Double glazed windows, including window shading 1.81 [W/m2K] 1.81 [W/m2K] No works

New heating system (savings include insulation) 15% savings 40% savings 15% savings

Installation of a solar hot water system No works 60% savings 60% savings


A smart school is cool (Viladecans)

“An important milestone for the city and the

neighbourhood”: words spoken by Mayor

Carlos Ruiz of Viladecans in November 2011.

In September 2012 the New Primary School

CEIP Nova Escola Ponent opened her doors

in the West District of Viladecans City. New

generation smart devices and energy systems

(like light sensors, digital whiteboards, fibre

optic cable, and PV) make the school, built as

part of cRRescendo, the first “Smart School”

in the municipality and a model for other

buildings in the city!

State of the art energy system

Thanks to the modern lighting and heating

systems, and other “smart” devices the school

was awarded with the maximum energy

efficiency building certificate by ICAEN

(Catalan Institute of Energy). The school

makes use of energy efficient lighting systems

(Fluorescent lighting, high efficiency light

bulbs and LED), and the rooms and toilets

have presence sensors for saving energy when

the rooms are unattended. Within the class

rooms, sensors detect the light intensity

(luminosity) coming from the windows and

adapt the intensity of the lights.

Regarding heating, a high-efficiency

condensing boiler is used combined with

thermostatic valves at all radiators. The

ventilation system is designed to recover 50%

of the energy from the air going out from the

classrooms. And in addition 650 m2 of solar

panels producing 125,000 kWh, and 9 solar

thermal collectors ensure the school is 70%

self-sufficient regarding electricity and 64%

for hot water.

The building design has been created with

energy efficiency criteria in mind with

features like ventilated walls and roofs, high

efficiency glazing, measures to prevent

thermal bridges, and the use of passive solar

energy in the building construction. There

is no need for cooling thanks to the clever

building design. Building materials have been

chosen consciously and according to the

latest rules and norms. The annual energy

consumption is calculated to be 608 MWh/

year, meaning 124 kWh/m2. The annual CO2

emissions are calculated to be 52 tCO2/year,

meaning 10 kg CO2/m2.

Applied measure Value

Clay Façade U = 0.48 W/m2K

Concrete Facade U = 0.46 W/m2K

Zinc Façade U = 0.18 W/m2K

Roof U = 0.28 W/m2K

Floor U = 0.48 W/m2K

GlazingU = 1.70 W/m2KSolar factor (G value) = 0.58

Heating system High efficiency boiler

Ventilation system Heat recovery (balanced)

Hot water 9 solar collectors (23.5 m2)

Renewable energy 394 PV-panels (94.56 kWp)

A smart new management model

The school serves as experimental example

of a new energy management model for

other facilities in the city. Currently, the

city is working on installing a new online

energy management system for the energy

consumption of all the municipal buildings.

This system will allow the real time tracking

of all energy flows for each municipal

building, or area. This information can be

used to set up corrective actions, manage the

energy demand/consumption patterns and

thus the required energy, spot moments of

excess and shortage of energy, etc.


4.1 Viladecans – the scene

Growth between nature and infrastructure

Viladecans is a mid-sized Spanish town of 20 km2 with

over 65,000 inhabitants; a city located 15 km from

Barcelona and its Sea Port. Barcelona Airport is nearby,

and a significant part (16%) of the airport infrastructure

belongs to the city area. Besides the infrastructural

connections (airport, sea port, national highways, and

a major railway), almost half of the municipal area is

environmentally protected. This double claim makes

the area complex when it comes to implementation,

coordination and management of development

plans, such as a protection plan for aquifers. Still, the

Local Dwelling Plan anticipates a growth to 73,000

inhabitants in 2020.

The existing homes in the town are fairly energy-

inefficient, e.g.: only half of dwellings have double glass

in windows, few have solar thermal panels (just 2% of

dwellings have them), and 79% of the dwellings have

little or no efficient light bulbs. But people are getting

more energy conscious: regarding electrical appliances:

80% say they try to choose an A label (see also:

www.cRRescendo.net).

Committing to sustainability

Carmen Pérez Figueras, head of the department of International

relations in Viladecans and City Coordinator in the cRRescendo

project: “Energy saving and climate change is an important

subject for the city. The awareness of the city regarding

this subject is high. Over the period 1999-2010, this was

substantiated by municipal policies and by joining external

sustainability networks.” The first relevant policy

measure was the approval of Agenda 21 already in

1999. A Municipal Environmental Action Program for

2003-2007 was approved in 2004 and the city signed

Paving the wayViladecans

44.1 Viladecans – the scene

4.2 Delivering eco-buildings

4.3 Solar energy in Viladecans

4.4 Overcoming barriers – stepping forward


paving the way 63

the “Vilafranca Declaration” for preventing

Climate Change in 2005. In addition, the

Municipal Assembly for Environment and

Sustainability was constituted on the 12th of

July 2005 and the Municipal Law for Solar

Energy was approved on the 23rd of April

2005.

The municipality enlisted in the European

Covenant of Mayors in 2008. Raquel Millán

Lopez ( 2013), cRRescendo project manager

for Viladecans: “This participation partly was

resulting from Viladecans’ involvement in the

cRRescendo project.” In 2009 the mandatory

Sustainable Energy Action Plan of Viladecans

was approved by the Covenant’s office. The

main objective of this plan was to reduce the

City Council’s own emissions by 20% in 2020

compared to 2005. Carmen Pérez: “Under these

substantial national and international frameworks,

the city started planning new developments

in a sustainable way, with high ambitions. In

Viladecans a shift from socio-economic to technical

projects was eminent and European support was needed.”

Ambitious extension plans

And so the sustainable showcase the “Llevant Partial

Plan” was initiated. The plan involved 2,100 dwellings

and included renewable energy, rational use of energy,

community development as well as other sustainability

criteria (water saving, wastes, biodiversity, etc.).

It was approved in 2007 by the Territorial Planning

Department of the Regional Government of Catalonia.

Carmen Pérez: “Such a ground-breaking eco-district required

substantial research. An energy concept had to be developed,

the set up of a tender procedure necessitated legislation studies,

and energy calculations for sustainable solutions were initiated.

Sometimes with remarkable findings.”

!A poly generation heat and power plant

combined with district heating may be

less feasible in the Spanish climate

compared to Northern Europe. In this

study this was due to a smaller demand for

space heating and a short heating period per year. A

high temperature grid (e.g. 70ºC) supplying both space

heat and hot tap water may be the most attractive. And

to supply the substantial demand for cold in summer,

cooling by absorption cooling machines in the building

“Ten years ago, we were a standard

modern Spanish town, now we are a

city smarting our way towards low

carbon society. The large ambitious

European project with renewable

and rational use of energy we

participated in, paved the way in our

municipality. And it pays to do so:

our business districts are still filling

up and our citizens love to live and

work in our town.”

Carles Ruiz Novella, Mayor Viladecans

blocks is an interesting energy option to investigate.

Raquel and Carmen: “Everything was in place. But the housing

and financial crisis, which started in 2007, hit Spain and

Viladecans hard. The private building sector in Spain dropped

into a very deep crisis. Regretfully, we had to postpone further

developments.”

Noblesse oblige

But by then, sustainability had been firmly internalised

in the council, and mayors were standing up for it. And

Viladecans had its international network obligations in

the European CONCERTO project cRRescendo. Carmen

Pérez: “Noblesse oblige. For instance, the Covenant obliges the

municipality to obtain an “A” energy label certificate for all new

public buildings.”

In 2009 the Municipality had to rationalise its plans

for cRRescendo and directed all the efforts towards

public buildings, such as theatres, sports facilities,

and libraries, and solar energy. These buildings then

demonstrate sustainability to visitors and occupants in

practice, and show that the Council puts money where

its mouth is. Carmen Pérez: “When the recession is over, the

project has changed the future way of building in Viladecans: it

will be clearly more sustainable than before.”

Viladecans centre


Being in a European project was stimulating. Raquel

Millán: “The other cities in cRRescendo Almere, Milton Keynes

and Ajaccio were inspiring examples how to adapt to changes

and how to layout new districts.” But at least as helpful

were the other ambitious CONCERTO developments

in Spain (Zaragoza and Tudela). Raquel Millán: “Exchange

of experience and colleague help was very valuable. As were

the national (so-called CONCERTO+) meetings for exchanging

knowledge.”

Viladecans became convinced that sustainability

is a multi-variable multi-level theme. To that end,

a management tool has been developed and is

currently in operation. Raquel Millán: “The effective Project

Co-ordination Committee of the cRRescendo management

structure was adopted in Viladecans. Internal Co-ordination

Committees were installed to improve transversal co-operation.

So, by virtue of the cRRescendo partnership example, a Smart

City Directors Committee has been formed with decision-

making powers, formalised in the internal procedures. In

this committee, politicians, mayors, and area directors and

department managers participate.”

4.2 Delivering eco-buildings

Getting it done

Institutionally, the cRRescendo project was integrated

in the Viladecans’ Bureau for Urban Renewal towards

Sustainability. During the preparation phase all

cRRescendo criteria were incorporated in the

public tenders for builders and the constraints for

the architectural designs. During the preparation

and realisation the Council was assisted by the two

municipal-owned Enterprises VIMED (development

of the Llevant sector) and VIGIP (PV development);

this is a common logistic construction in Spain.

These enterprises can operate with less bureaucratic

constraints in developing projects.

The period between preparation and submission of the

cRRescendo proposal at the end of 2003, and the final

contract in august 2005 took longer than expected.

This caused that some of the buildings planned to be

sustainable to fall out of scope and sometimes were

built in the conventional way. For example construction

of Day Care Centre La Marina had already started before

2005.

See also Milton Keynes (page 42-43): negotiating subsidy

applications

! In addition the final subsidy conditions

did not all match Viladecans expectations.

Raquel Millán: “It turned out that the subsidy

available was much less than expected (30 €/m2

Time plays a large role in subsidized projects. Be prepared to deal with delays and financial re-arrangements.

Viladecans Llevant development plan (postponed)

paving the way 65

For infants, culture, associations, sports, and students…

The Council developed 3 new high-quality public (non-

residential) buildings and refurbished 2 other buildings.

And, as part of a larger plan for installing 1MW of

photovoltaic panels, Viladecans installed 238 kWp of

solar PV panels and 191m2 of solar thermal collectors

during cRRescendo. All were developed for users sharing

a future oriented character, such as: day care centres,

cultural centres, sport clubs, and school buildings.

instead of the submitted 100€/m2). Some criteria of the

CONCERTO programme, for instance the U-values, should

be considered differently in warm countries, as heating is only

limited to a small part of the year and cooling is predominant.”

Raquel Millán: “Around 2005, it was difficult to find some of

the energy-friendly building materials as they were not widely

commercialised in Spain. For example, at first it was difficult to

find the optimum double-glazing windows for La Pineda Day

Care. But ambitious projects like cRRescendo create the demand

for this kind of products. Nowadays it is common to find such

kind of materials in Spain.”

Office BuildingsName

Number of Buildings

TypeRealised Gross Area (m2)

Measures Solar PV (kWp)/Thermal (m2)

Day care Centre La Pineda 1 New Building 1,144

Solar collectors

12.5 m2

Passive solar energy

High insulation of roof, floor and windows

High efficient lighting and cooling

Can Xic Youth Centre 1 Renovation 765

Solar PV panels

6 kWp

High insulation

Sport Facilities building 1 New Building 1.512

Solar collectors

156 m2

High insulation

Cultural Centre – Auditorium Pablo Picasso

1 Renovation 821 High insulation

School CEIP Ponent 1 New Building 4,982

PV panels

95 kWp

22.5 m2Solar collectors

Very high insulation (label A)

La Marina Park 0 New Pergola Solar PV Panels 16 kWp

Atrium Sports and Theatre centre

1 Existing buildings Solar PV Panels 94 kWp

Cubic Conference Centre 1 Existing buildings Solar PV Panels 23 kWp

Municipal Library 1 Existing building Solar PV Panels 4.9 kWp

Total 8 9,224238 kWp191 m2

Overview cRRescendo Eco-buildings, and renewable energy in Viladecans


Solar thermal hot water installations on facilities building Soccer field “Torre Roja”.(right)

Day-care centre la Pineda (left)

Youth Cultural centre “Can Xic” (left)

Day-Care Centre “La Pineda”

La Pineda is a new day-care centre hosting about 100

children. La Pineda is the first demonstration building

in Viladecans, taken into use on 1st of October 2008.

Insulation, efficient windows, solar hot water systems,

high efficiency lighting and cooling are installed. And

the building makes better use of passive solar energy.

The teachers say they feel very good in this comfortable,

modern building.

Youth Cultural Centre “Can Xic”

Can Xic is a refurbished country house with a cultural

destination. It offers workshops, courses and adjacent

office space and multifunctional spaces for music, arts,

etc. In May 2009 Can Xic has opened up with graffiti

competitions, table tennis, Wii matches, break-dance

shows and concerts.

Sport Facilities Building - Football Field Torre Roja

This Sport Facilities Building is a new building,

inaugurated on the 24th January 2010. The 100 square

meters of solar thermal panels cover 80% of the hot

water needs, such as showers.

Cultural Centre – Auditorium Pablo Picasso

The Auditorium Pable Picasso was refurbished in 10

months by 11 previously unemployed people. It is a

historical building from the beginning of 20th century

designed by Josep Canaleta, a pupil of Antoni Gaudí.

Originally it was an abattoir, which was reconverted

into a cultural centre during the 1980’s. The centre hosts

31 cultural associations. There is an auditorium with

theatre facilities and seating capacity for 157 people and

a small exhibition room. It was inaugurated on the 27th

of February 2011.

Primary School - Ponent

The new Primary School CEIP Nova Escola Ponent

(West School) contains a ground floor and two more

floors with 40 classrooms, one gym, one dining hall

with kitchen, a library, and a room for the parents

association. The building is 4,982 m2 and the plot

is 8,000 m2. It is now fully in function, hosting 650

students. This building has obtained the “A” energy

performance qualification according to the CALENER

and LIDER programs. A high efficiency condensing boiler

with thermostatic valves, and a ventilation system with

Cultural Center Pablo Picasso (right)

paving the way 67

heat recovery is installed. And in addition 94.5 kWp solar

photovoltaic panels for producing electricity, and 9 solar

thermal collectors are installed to provide for 64% of the

schools hot water consumption.

See also page 61 for Case: A smart school is cool

4.3 Solar energy in Viladecans

The original goal was to install 342 kWp of solar PV

(for electricity) and 191 m2 of solar thermal panels (for

hot water). All solar thermal panels and a large part of

the solar PV panels were finally installed. Raquel Millán:

“We counted on finance from the national subsidy schemes

for photovoltaic energy in Spain. But these decreased by 70%

between 2004-2008. Therefore it is not as interesting for a

private company to invest in a solar energy plant anymore. This

also meant that the last PV installation had to be totally paid by

our partner VIGIP. This seriously affected the implementation of

PV in the frame of the cRRescendo Project.”

So far, 239kW of solar PV has been installed (2/3 of

what was planned) on 6 locations, with panels facing

southeast, south or southwest. The installations are

functioning conform to their specifications. Most PV

installations are mounted on buildings.

One exception: In La Marina Park, about 125 m2 of solar

PV is installed on a steel superstructure, including 96

panels (170 Wp each).

Several Wi-Fi spots are installed on outdoor PV-shelters,

which were created near a public sports field. On

the long run the municipality is still committed to

implementing a total 1 MW of PV in the city.

Solar panels on sport and theatre centre


Sustainability fair

Training professionals in Viladecans on solar PV installation and maintenance (left)

Solar powered pergola servicing Wi-Fi hot spots (right)

Solar panels on municipal library

paving the way 69

4.4 Overcoming barriers – stepping forward

Performance in La Pineda affected by day-care users

The point of view from the occupants is enlightening.

As one teacher puts it: “La Pineda is a modern, comfortable, and

nice building. These are the really important criteria to judge

my working place.” She is obviously satisfied. Raquel Millán:

“But we were curious how the buildings perform energetically,

and executed a monitoring programme.”

Some preliminary results:

In day-care centre La Pineda, the heat consumption

seems to be much larger than CONCERTO specified, and

even larger than the national regulation. This is largely

due to high heat consumption in the winter months.

In addition the solar collector hot water yield was

substantially lower than expected. Should we conclude

that the performance is very poor? Not yet. First it is

important to take into account that there were start-up

problems with solar hot water provision. Due to liquid

losses in the primary circuit the collector had been out of

order for a while.

Second, inhabitants, occupants and visitors influence

performance. For example: Raquel Millán: “During evening

parents” gatherings, the parents adjusted the thermostat

settings to make it more comfortable, and these were not reset

for a longer period.” Carmen Pérez adds: “In a day care centre,

where children under one year old are taken care of, will require

substantial higher temperatures, maybe not taken into account

in the specifications.”

!It is obvious the energy installations

should be fully operational, and without

growing pains before starting the

monitoring period. And occupant behaviour

should be factored into the comparison

between calculated and measured performance.

The financial crisis

Despite the financial crisis, which interfered with the

project, considerable work has been done. Raquel Millán:

“The financial and housing crisis hit us hard. Financial setbacks

were multiple: Higher construction and land costs which

reduced profitability. Lack of tax incentives and subsidies for

sustainability in Spain. Reduced CONCERTO eligible costs for

construction (€/m2), and changed Spanish law regarding PV.”

Manage and improve the energy behaviour of all users of your eco-buildings.

Most of these setbacks are nation-wide.

The intervention by the municipality was to step

in as a back-up developer. Thus the majority of the

investments have been directly made by the municipality

and its municipal enterprises. The private sector has

not participated in financing. Raquel Millán: “The good

thing of such a deep crisis is that it forces you to rethink your

plans thoroughly and select the strongest.” We observe

from experience that any large long-term project will

encounter financial and conjuncture barriers along the

way.

Harness indigenous technologies

Raquel Millán: “Some sustainable building criteria, suitable for

Nordic countries, are not applicable or implementable in Southern

countries. And southern countries still have access to traditional

“indigenous” construction methods which have evolved as the

most effective in the climatic conditions.”

!An example is rainwater collection and

re-use instead of draining it. In Spain

rainwater collection is still common

practice, but in northern countries an

almost forgotten skill. In Almere’s

Columbuskwartier it is reintroduced. An interesting

balance should be found between the attractiveness of

technological advanced solutions versus traditional tools.

Can modern low-carbon technologies be combined

better with the traditional practices? Carmen Pérez: “We

think that if you want to change the future, you first have to look

at the past. This was also shown in the soccer stadium. With a

passive design which shades the building in summertime, the

cooling demand was substantially reduced.”

Catalyst for the future

Main benefit of this project is that the municipal

mentality has changed. At all levels. Raquel Millán:

“Becoming a smart energy city is not a question anymore, but a

belief – a true paradigm shift.” But why did the Council not

advertise its accomplishments with grand openings

of the buildings? Because of professional pride. Raquel

Millán: “We are still disappointed and remorseful that we had to

postpone so many plans. But it may turn out for good. We are

better geared for large-scale developments. We are now preparing

a re-development of the smart low-carbon Llevante development.

As such, cRRescendo has been an important catalyst and enabler

for a low-energy community.”


Checking the ambition

The monitoring in cRRescendo was aimed at assessing the community level benefits of

integrating renewable energy sources (RES) as well as energy efficiency (EE) techniques

in the cRRescendo communities. On the following pages a selection of relevant

monitoring results will be discussed. The full monitoring results can be found on our project

website: www.cRRescendo.net.

Solar energy in cRRescendoThe Almere Solar Island, a large field with

520 coupled solar thermal collectors (7,800

m2), supplies renewable heat to the primary

district heating grid of Almere which acts

as an unlimited storage. The water flow,

temperature readings and irradiation were

recorded every 5 seconds from May 2010 to

June 2012. The results indicate that the Solar

Island annually converts 32% of the energy

received from the sun (irradiation) to heat. The

total yield of the Solar Island is between 8,440

and 8,930 GJ for a normal year, leading to a

yield per net m2 of 1.18-1.25 GJ. For comparison,

individual collectors typically have a yield of 1.1-

1.4 GJ per m2. So (within the error margin) this

specific Solar Island system already performs

equal to individual collectors without having

profited from its future learning curve yet.

Solar island (page 20)

For the solar hot water collectors in Ajaccio

(Rue de la Porta), it can be concluded that the

solar hot water production (in the first year

only) performs less than anticipated: 10 kWh/

m2 instead of the anticipated 15 kWh/m2 floor

area. Other locations such as Monte Mare

and St. Paul performed somewhat better 11-13

kWh/m2.

Buildings in Columbuskwartier are equipped

with a large number of small PV-systems

equipped with CIS solar cells from Wurth

Solar (CIS75-modules). CIS cells are thin-

film cells with a bit lower efficiency than

crystalline Silicon cells. It is the first time

these cells are used at this scale in Holland.

About 80 systems are monitored. The

annual monitored yield is 60-65 kWh/m2,

and the occupants themselves use most

of the electricity (>95%). The monitoring

also revealed several defects, which must

be solved by the supplier. Apart from these

defect systems, the average measured yield

has dropped in 2014 to 70% of the theoretical

calculated yield (72% in the beginning), which

was and still is too low.

The monitoring of solar PV systems in Milton

Keynes and Viladecans started late, leading

to a (too) short monitoring period. More

data will become available later. In Milton

Keynes the 165 kWp PV system, installed on

the old bus station, comprises of 825 panels,

of 200 Wp each. The output was continuously

monitored through a web portal and an

energy and carbon meter is prominently

displayed at the community centre. Data

acquired in the first half year of operation

(February-August) showed a production of

92.5 MWh. In Viladecans, 239 kWp of PV has

been installed, and for 117 kWp 8 months of

monitoring data were available. The results

for both cities indicate the systems perform

as expected.

Pv in MK (page 42/43)

Pv in Viladecans (page 67)

Ecobuildings in cRRescendoThe Ecobuildings can be roughly divided

in in three energy efficiency performance

levels above the level that is obliged by law or

building code. In Almere these houses were

for example called Eco-Houses, Solar Houses

and Passive Houses: with a 10%, 25% or 50%

higher energy performance. In Milton Keynes

all dwellings and buildings belong to the mid-

level ambition or higher, while in Ajaccio and

Viladecans the ambition level is spread over

the low and the mid performance level. But in

Ajaccio cRRescendo’s most ambitious (energy

positive) building is being built after the end

date of the project.

Noorderplassen West annual energy use

Calculated energy use

Regulation Concerto specs

Measured use

2010-2014

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

kWh/m2.a

http://www.cRRescendo.net


Almere and Viladecans:

“The first year monitoring effect”

In Almere a large amount of monitoring data

was collected of about 700 dwellings for

two consecutive years, including detailed

(monthly or real-time) results for about

100 dwellings. In Viladecans monitoring

data were limited. But still 8 months of

monitoring results were available at the end

of cRRescendo, while monitoring continues.

The monitoring results presented in the

figures on the average final energy demand

in the Almere communities shows that the

buildings in both Noorderplassen West and

Columbuskwartier in average have been

built according to the specs promised to

CONCERTO. When looking at the measured

energy consumption (real behaviour) an

interesting effect appears:

- In Noorderplassen West monitoring results

are in line with the expectations (see title

box).

- In Columbuskwartier however the

results improve a bit from the first to the

second monitoring year, with possibly an

underperformance in the first year.

This may be due to the fact that half of the

houses in Columbuskwartier had only been

commissioned just before the monitoring

started. In Noorderplassen West most houses

were delivered earlier. This supports the

recommendation not to base any conclusions

on the first year of monitoring directly after

realisation.

In Viladecans both the newly built Day

care centre La Pineda, and the refurbished

Cultural Centre Can Xic have been built

according to the CONCERTO specifications,

and show a large improvement over national

regulation. Monitoring data, only from the

preferrably “not to be used” first year, show

that Can Xic performs in line with the upfront

expectation, while energy use in La Pineda is

significantly higher. A possible explanation is

Annual energy use La Pineda

Columbuskwartier: Annual energy use

National

regulation

Planned Realised

CONCERTO

specification140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

-20kW

h/m

2.a

Calculated use: Measured use:

2010-2011 2011-2012 2012-2014

Hot water demand (Space) Heating demand Electricity demand RE electricity production

Cooling demand SHW heat production

Annual energy use newly built and Can Xic - refurbishment

Planned Realised Planned Realised

160

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

-20

-40

160

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

-20

-40

Measured use Measured use

that this is due to the fact that Can Xic was a

refurbishment project, and that the “first year

monitoring effect” is only a problem for newly

built developments.

!To ensure a sufficient and high

quality data set at least a two

year monitoring period is

needed.

Variation of consumption in Ajaccio and Milton

Keynes

In Ajaccio, reference monitoring was

done for the re-built apartments in Rue

de la Porta in the historic city centre. In

addition, a measurement programme

was set up to measure SHW yield, hot tap

water consumption and heat consumption.

Unfortunately, due to hiccups during the

start-up only a limited part of the collected

data could be used for the analyses.

kW

h/m

2.a

kW

h/m

2.a

National

regulation

CONCERTO

specification

Calculated use:

National

regulation

CONCERTO

specification

Calculated use:


What was striking from the reference

monitoring of the old building was that

electricity consumption showed a huge

spread from apartment to apartment.

A similar picture was found during the

monitoring of the monthly electricity

consumption of 40 individual apartments

in Milton Keynes, and even more extreme

variations were observed in the heat use after

renovation for 15 monitored households in

Monte e Mare, Ajaccio.

Monte e Mare and Pinnacle – The real story behind

the results

In Monte e Mare measured heating

consumption and solar hot water

production were available. The solar hot

water production is reasonably in line with

expectations. The heat consumption seems

much lower than expected. However, it

turns out that the national averages and

expected 15% improvement in efficiency

from the national average (the CONCERTO

specification) is far away from being a

realistic picture of the situation before

renovation. The national average is for the

whole of France, while Ajaccio is situated in

one of the warmest areas in France.

Annual energy use in Monte e Mare - residential

Planned Realised

160

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

-20

-40

Planned Realised

Annual energy use in the Vizion buildings – residential

250

200

150

100

50

0

-50

Vizion Apartment Monthly Heat Consumption in kWh/m2

Based on 40 apartments

25.00

20.00

15.00

10.00

5.00

0.00

He

at

in k

Wh

/m2

Months

Aug - 10 Sep - 10 Oct - 10 Nov - 10 Dec - 10 Jan - 11 Feb - 11 Mar - 11

For Pinnacle, in Milton Keynes, the calculated

results are in line with the predefined

CONCERTO targets. However the measured

actual heat and electricity demand were

higher, while only 50% of the office and

retail areas were occupied. Full occupation

would at least further increase the electricity

use. Analysis of the profile of electricity

however showed that the night-time demand

rarely falls below 50% of the daytime peak,

indicating that a lot of equipment and/or

lighting is not turned off. Finally, zooming in

to the monthly totals shows strikingly that

both significant cooling and heating takes

place year round.

Combined Heat & Power plant and Vizion

building at par

The electrical generation efficiency for the

CHP was found to be 37% while thermal

efficiency was 30%. This corresponds to

manufacturer’s nominal efficiency levels of

42% (electrical) and 43% (thermal). There is a

degree of over-sizing of the central plant to

accommodate future expansion. So, often,

only one of the machines is required to meet

the demand, operating on part load for

significant periods.

The figure on the average final energy

consumption in the new Vizion residential

buildings shows the heat, hot water and

electricity demand are all found to be at

par with CONCERTO targets and shows a

tremendous reduction compared to the valid

national regulation.

kW

h/m

2.a

kW

h/m

2.a

National

regulation

CONCERTO

specification

Calculated use:

National

regulation

CONCERTO

specification

Calculated use:

Measured use

Measured use


5

5.1 A learning history

Almere planning

Almere, as a young city, has been consciously planned

for the past forty years and is still developing today

notwithstanding the recession. It has been – and

still is – a continuous process of brainstorming,

designing, construction, experience and change.

Columbuskwartier, a neighbourhood in the new Almere

Poort district, is part of that process.

The discovery of a sustainable community Columbuskwartier Almere

5.1 A learning history

5.2 The district Almere Poort

5.3 From simple idea to detailed plan

5.4 Getting a grip on sustainability

— Managing Columbus’ egg

The neighbourhood, as well as the district, is

remarkable in many ways for both the city of Almere and

the Netherlands. Sustainability was taken into account

in all life cycle phases (development, realisation, use,

and maintenance).

A learning history with partners

The development has been very instructive, both in

terms of content and process. This motivated the

intensive evaluation of the effectiveness and successes

This chapter is based on “Columbuskwartier, de ontdekking van een duurzame wijk”, DuurzaamheidsLab, Gemeente Almere, May 2009.

the discovery of a sustainable community 75

of the sustainable development tools used

in Columbuskwartier. For instance with a

multi-actor analysis and a Learning History,

in cooperation with the Dutch national

innovation programme for building (PSI-

Bouw), public-private partnerships such

as the regional Nieuw Flevolands Peil, and

The Netherlands Organisation of Applied

Scientific Research TNO. The evaluation

showed that already during the preparation

phase a stage for parties to meet and initiate

new development projects in Almere was

born. The evaluation also showed that real

estate developer TBI/Koopmans was the

most important private stakeholder.

5.2 The district Almere Poort

Quality and sustainability

Almere Poort is the city’s fourth major

development area after (Almere) Haven,

Stad and Buiten. These earlier built districts

have provided Almere with large quantities

of houses but little diversity. In developing

Almere Poort the goals were driven by quality

instead of quantity and the desire to give

Almere a more urban feel. The 1999 Structural

Plan Almere Poort assigned sustainability as key in

future development. Columbuskwartier was designated

to become the most sustainable neighbourhood within

the district Poort.

From sandy lowland to a lively district

The area used to be sandy reclaimed land from the

IJsselmeer (IJ-lake). Now it has transformed into an

attractive and highly varied area. People can live, work

and do sports, right at the waterfront. It is transforming

into an urban area with ample space, and opportunities

for recreation, relaxation, and for a rich, fulfilling life.

Almere Poort consists of four residential areas, several

business parks, and a centrally located public park,

surrounded by water and green areas. By developing

the coastal zone, Almere is aiming itself towards the

waterfront. Residences as well as catering and options

for leisure will be constructed alongside the IJ-Lake. The

area is turning into the beach town of the Amsterdam’s

metropolitan area. A newly assembled dune area will

complement the current polder landscape.

All four residential neighbourhoods have their

own characteristics: Europakwartier will offer

modern, urban living. Columbuskwartier will be a

comfortable, suburban and very sustainable residential

neighbourhood. Homeruskwartier will consist of many

private (individual) developmental projects, while

Olympiakwartier will offer city centre facilities.

From a sustainable district to the most sustainable

neighbourhood

The focus on sustainability was chosen when Almere

Poort was very first planned. For the initial plans, an

Environmental Impact Report was made, to point out

the Most Eco-friendly Alternative from the different

scenarios for the area’s development - on the basis

of value to future generations. This Eco-friendly

Alternative proved sufficiently strong, and was

accepted by the city council as the preferential choice.

“The Columbuskwartier is Almere’s

most important showcase in the

cRRescendo project. In anticipation

of the Almere Principles - which

were published in 2008 - renewable

energy sources were explored and

sustainability was implemented

way beyond the conventional

ecological concepts. Almere Poort

and Columbuskwartier or more

specifically the community The

Marvel in Columbuskwartier South

is as sustainable as you can get on

the district and community level

anno 2012. It is well worth to be

discovered.”

Emil ter Horst, cRRescendo project manager for Almere

Urban design plan of Columbuskwartier (2005)


Based on this Eco-Alternative the residential

neighbourhoods and business parks of Poort were

developed. Each neighbourhood was studied to evaluate

sustainable options. Al improvements have been

established on environment themes like energy, noise,

water, and ecology. An excellent example is the energy

supply to Almere Poort: a >90% reduction in carbon

dioxide emission has been reached.

Almere Poort overview map

In 1999, the plan for the Almere Poort area was to realize a

very versatile area with approximately 10,000 residences,

300-400,000 m2 floor space for offices, and 115 hectare of

business area for 20,000 jobs. Approximately 80 hectare

was planned for sport and leisure activities, and 35

hectare for other public facilities. In 2005, Almere Poort

Business Plan described how to enrich the original urban

development plan. This new structural plan influenced

the final design of Columbuskwartier. A truly integral

approach to sustainability was born for the first time in

Europe at this scale.

5.3 From ambitious idea to detailed integral sustainable urban plan

In contrast to traditional renewable projects and policy

which look at separate environmental factors, the

development of Columbuskwartier took an integral

approach: sustainable development of an urban

community along the entire spectrum of ecological,

physical, social and economic factors. The key question

was: how to interpret the concept of sustainability

factually, spatially and methodically.

Sustainable ingredients / building materials / elements

A municipal project team was given the assignment

to work out this key question. The first essential

step was to define sustainability. The internationally

recognized definition of sustainability interpreted with

the Triple-P Approach provided a useful framework to

realise and further refine this concept. With this the

step to concrete spatial developments specific to the

local situation however could not be made yet. Global

Overview of the development The Marvel, from final design to realized


concepts like climate change, pollution, quality of

life and future prospects, did not mobilise sufficient

support on its own. Therefore the project team

developed a list of more applicable definitions including

an array of options for spatial or physical ingredients.

And the list would cover all aspects of sustainability.

Describing environmental aspects was already

challenging, but this certainly also counted for

describing the social and economic aspects of

sustainability. Engaging external expertise did lead to

better understanding, but still no progress to municipal

practice was made. Alex van Oost, senior staff member

Sustainable Building and Energy at the department responsible

for environmental policy: “A special task was to elaborate on

the socially-sustainable character of the district, the “People”

part. Research on lifestyle and daily activity schedules

made us focus on the combination of work, family care and

household management. Another goal was to build houses

to accommodate people of all ages and lifestyles. We paid

special attention to design public spaces according to criteria

of interactional experience, safety as well as attractiveness.

Physical and ecological sustainability are necessary conditions

for social sustainability. Consequently, we set goals for

sustainable construction techniques, use of energy and water,

ecological aspects and noise reduction. Creating a visibly

sustainable district was a special item of attention.”

Sustainability Compass

In the years 2005-2008 it became very clear that integral

sustainable city planning does not happen overnight.

Bicycle path; cars can not enter the inside of the neighbourhood

Open rainwater system creates semi-private terraces at the front side of the dwellings, in close contact with the public space


Knowledge instruments and tools for sustainable urban

planning such as the National Package (1999) and local

Blueprints for Sustainable Building were inadequate.

The project needed its own practical and flexible

supporting tools that would provide full information

from the very start of city plan development projects

and could adjust to specific needs during the process.

This firstly resulted in a sustainability matrix, much

like a reference document. The matrix subdivides

sustainability in three dimensions: People, Planet and

Prosperity. Within each of these dimensions, spatial

aspects relevant for sustainable city planning were

listed categorically. The matrix was used for the first

time in the development plan for Columbuskwartier.

Later it helped in the assessment of the tenders for the

southern part of the district.

This method was further developed together

with the Saxion College, leading to a prototype

for the Sustainability Compass. Insights from the

Columbuskwartier planning process were absorbed

into the Compass and validated in practice, thereby

creating a solid instrument applicable in Almere’s

context. Alex van Oost: “We were literally learning on the job.

The Sustainability Compass became an important supportive

instrument. It gives us insight into technical realization,

investments and management aspects of various ambitions.

It facilitates efficient and results-oriented working within the

project team. It not just describes ideas and ambition levels,

it shows how to achieve them and gives insight into costs and

benefits.”

Meanwhile the Compass has evolved into a web-

based computer tool linked to the widely used Dutch

Sustainability Profile of a Location. This instrument

helps to determine sustainable ambitions and puts a

figure to sustainable achievements of a district. The

Cascade Park close to Columbuskwartier was designed

in 2007 using both instruments.

5.4 Getting a grip on sustainability

The city Council was focused on developing social

sustainability. The project team spent much attention

on researching the options for spatial city planning in

relation to daily life, life style and consumer-directed

construction. This research formed the basis for items

like social cohesion, quality of life, social security and

child friendliness. The KinderPath is a concrete and

unique result, which became the social backbone of the

neighbourhood.

Until then, it was common practice to combine

technical, schematic and financial aspects with

spatial aspects to create a detailed blueprint plan

of areal division. That was also the initial set-up for

Columbuskwartier. However, in search of quality and

innovation, the Council decided to pioneer along a

different line. A framework plan was developed, in

which only a spatial framework was laid out, in which

construction sites could later be filled in. The framework

served to create cohesion between construction sites.

Subareas were merely given a scheme and a set of basic

rules for further elaboration. This way the Council

intended to allow the market to bring forth more quality

and creativity. The framework approach was a turning

point. It served as a valuable basis for achieving the

degree of sustainability in Columbuskwartier.

Solar Houses and Eco-houses called The Playery, artist impression and reality


Tendering and co-creation in the southern part

However, much had happened before all of this. Almere

decided on a tender procedure in order to attract

appropriate partners. Former Alderman Arie Willem

Bijl expected the market to bring in much knowledge

and creativity, and believed that tendering would be

the best method to stimulate this. Alex van Oost: “I have

always believed in the call for tenders to raise knowledge and

stimulate creativity. To give developers a set of criteria as

well as a certain amount of freedom in their designs was a

breakthrough for the project. In assessing their designs, just 10

out of 100 points were scored for sustainability. At that time

it was the best feasible. But things have changed. Take the

Cascade Park. In the design contest for housing development

no less than 50% of the score is based on a vision on sustainable

construction. We”re evolving! Ultimately almost all concepts

submitted for Columbuskwartier were of high quality, and

better than I had expected. Despite the low number of points

Solar Houses for house-owners around the KinderPath

KinderPath through the community with unique playgrounds (left)

More SolarHouses at the outside of the community, where cars may park (right)


that could be granted, all plans focused on the sustainability

criteria. It was clear to me our sustainable ambitions stimulated

the market.”

Traditional but ambitious development in the northern part

In Almere Poort, three styles of urban development

were explored, differing in content and process: firstly

tendering and co-creation in the southern part of

Columbuskwartier. In the northern part there was room

for conventional ambitious development as well as

private (individual) contracting (relatively new for the

Netherlands).

In the northern part building areas were awarded to

project developers that had construction contracts in

other parts of Almere Poort as compensation for halted

projects elsewhere in Almere.

This resulted in a plan with over 100 Passive Homes.

Emil ter Horst: “The ambition in the southern part of

Columbuskwartier clearly stimulated the Passive houses – an

initiative of BAM – to go significantly beyond the quality level

we had set in the south.” Construction of this large number

of very low-energy houses in one project in the rented

sector was new in the Netherlands. But the level of

integral sustainability obtained in the southern part

The Marvel, was not achieved.

See also chapter 1 (page 14)

EC subsidy as an enabler for quality and persistence

The European grant for the cRRescendo project within

the CONCERTO programme proved of great value.

The grant was elaborated into a binding contract in

2005. This contract became part of the development

plan, which later became of critical importance to

safeguard the physical sustainability ambitions of

Columbuskwartier. The subsidy we received financially

supported our sustainability ambitions, for instance

to the many solar-powered houses. But European

recognition made the project position with the

city Council stronger, and also showed developers

we had something real to offer. In other projects in

Almere Poort, the ambitions were downscaled during

implementation, but not in the Columbuskwartier!

Looking back, success has many fathers. What and/

or who balanced “the Egg of Columbus” so successfully

through time? All success factors could have killed the

project if they had not been in place: the call for tender,

the arbitration, the new Alderman Adri Duivesteyn

continuing this specific urban development, the

inspiring staff members, or the subsidy from the EC. Or

was it the unique ambition of the real estate developer?

Jos Ensink, project manager at TBI/Koopmans. “For me it is

clear that the municipal project leader Aleida Winkelman is the

most important factor for the overall success of the project.

Ambitions are easily put on paper by a municipality at the

start and promises are easily made by a developer. But during

implementation ambitions are easily lost when they have to be

translated from the patient paper to the much harder practice.

Aleida Winkelman took the time to understand our problems

during implementation. She went for advise to municipality staff

for solving problems which emerged, and used her power when

it was needed. It was an excellent example of co-development by

municipality and real estate developer. Without her persistent

attention and skills from the very beginning until the first

delivery of houses in 2008, the integral sustainable quality of

The Marvel would have been much lower.”

People making the city in Columbuskwartier

Children showing their sustainable wishes in Columbus’ Egg


Managing Columbus’ Egg

Aleida Winkelman-van Doornum, Municipal project

manager Columbuskwartier (2003- 2008), Almere:

Columbus’ Egg

“In Columbuskwartier, we wanted to attain the most

extensive level of sustainability. A true community of the

future. At first no one in the project team found a solution

for The Egg of Columbus. We had high ambitions, but we

lacked the specific expert knowledge required to clarify

the broadly defined ambitions. And we could not easily

attract this knowledge from elsewhere. What we wanted

had never before been done in our country. Especially our

broad definition of sustainability proved to be an issue. We

were not looking for technical and architectural aspects

alone; we wanted to make a neighbourhood that would

be sustainable on a social level too. What is that? And how

were we going to make that visible and objective?”

! Make your ambitions concrete and

objective.

People, Planet, Prosperity

“We did better after taking the People, Planet, Prosperity

concept on board. This directly led to e.g. the idea for

the KinderPath: a safe and carless trail providing access

to residences, schools and facilities. The trail enables

residents to easily combine daily tasks such as care

and work, and will in fact be crossing the heart of the

neighbourhood passing by many meeting points and

playgrounds.”

! Think about the reward you offer in the

tender process to commercial businesses.

Our second-round reward amounted to

20,000 euro for each plan. Looking back, this

may have been too little compensation for high-quality

plans.

Call for tenders

“To us this was a whole new way of thinking. We were

used to design public areas ourselves, and make detailed

plans of land subdivision. Now all we could do was list

the conditions and leave the rest to external parties.

How much freedom were we willing to give tender

participators? Eventually we settled for the golden mean.

For example we listed the minimal numbers of new

residences and the percentage of social housing, but not

the division of dwellings across price segments.”

Much interest

“Eventually, the tender procedure went smoothly.

We raised much interest among all national major

development and housing corporations to register

for the procedure’s quality selection phase. Based on

predetermined criteria such as solvency and previous

projects (references), we selected five corporations for the

second phase of the procedure to work out an actual plan.”

High quality

“This resulted in a broad range of plans, all of high quality.

We predefined a scoring system in which criteria for

quality made up half of the score. Within these quality

criteria, we did not prioritize one specific aspect. This also

applied to sustainability, which in our opinion already was

the basis for the development plan of Columbuskwartier.

Ultimately, this decision turned against us when we

compared the final scores for all plans: they scored close

to each other. At first, the plan by TBI/Koopmans did

not win but seemed a good second choice. We had our

doubts about the financial support for TBI’s excellent plan

for public areas containing large numbers of exceptional

public elements. When TBI questioned our appraisal

and asked the arbitrator, they were granted right: it was

not our responsibility to pass judgment on the financial

support.

Although the arbitration procedure resulted in a delay, TBI

Bouw/Koopmans and Almere ultimately worked together

well and intensively. The developer wished to frequently

consult with us about the specific implementation.

Looking back, I found this very satisfactory.”

To repeat the success

“Now you can walk around the community. And you can

feel that especially The Marvel and its public areas are truly

exceptional.” Citizens express their enthusiasm as well:

“This is different than other Almere districts! Without the

call for tenders, we might not have been able to achieve

these optimal quality and sustainability aspects while

maintaining to offer buyers and tenants reasonable

prices. In the end, the city has saved time and money on

planning and arranging and subdividing land.”

Looking back, success has many fathers but, according to most stakeholders in the development process, only one mother: the understanding, solving but persistent project manager for the neighbourhood Aleida Winkelman.


Empowering the community

Socio-economics

From a cRRescendo perspective, the

CONCERTO indicators had a poor fit with

most of the local projects. Nevertheless,

cRRescendo cities contributed information

on 87.5% of the CONCERTO indicators. On

the other hand many of the most relevant

issues of local interest during cRRescendo on

education, public events, and information on

the policy context were not well covered by

CONCERTO.

Almere is one of the cities that successfully

hired a local social research partner that

undertook independent research and

activities interactively with the central social

research coordinator. The local partner,

NMFF, did an excellent job of engaging the

public in the cRRescendo areas. In particular,

there were a number of creative activities

directed toward engaging children in the

renewable and efficient attributes of their

neighbourhoods. The full list of social

research related documents prepared by

NMFF are outlined in the dedicated Final

Social Research Report.

Milton Keynes also successfully hired a local

social research partner that undertook

independent research and activities

interactively with the central social research

coordinator. The local social partner, USEA,

carried out a number of social research

projects in close cooperation with the social

research coordinator Oxford University.

Together, these entities developed surveys

for the residents in the Vizion apartment

building, the occupants in the Pinnacle office

building, and the participants in a workshop

on the solar PV array. In addition, Oxford

University did a stakeholder analysis.

The social research in Ajaccio covers relevant

initiatives and priorities in relation to housing,

construction, energy efficiency and micro

generation – both at the French national level

and in terms of Corsica as an island in its own

right. Additional resident surveys focused on

people’s general understanding and familiarity

with technology, rather than on their response

Social & Policy Context

Direct Education and Training

Public Engagement Activities

Occupant Surveys

Stakeholder Interviews

Ajaccio üüü ü ü ü ü

Almere ü üü üüü üü üü

Milton Keynes üü ü üüü ü

Viladecans üüü üü ü

Distribution and magnitude of cRRescendo social research methods and results

For socio-economic research and monitoring a number of indicators were originally

proposed by the uniquely integral EC CONCERTO programme. These indicators served as

a general frame in which ideally research in each project was supposed to conform. Eight

issues were distinguished. In some of these areas, the goal was to find the percentage of people

(predominantly households) reacting positively to the CONCERTO measures.

Social dimension:

1 Degree of satisfaction / acceptance by inhabitants / tenants /

2 owners Level of information & direct participation

3 Active/proactive tenants behaviour

Environmental dimension:

4 Improvement of CONCERTO district environment and internal comfort level

Economic dimension:

5 Economic-ecologic cost effectiveness

6 Increase in local control of energy supply / local energy production due to CONCERTO measures

7 Stimulation of local economy

8 Pay Back Period (Investor side)




to having technology installed in their own

homes.

The Council of Viladecans commissioned an

extensive energy awareness and behaviour

research performed by unemployed people,

covering a large proportion of the inhabitants

in the entire city. Furthermore in a poll 330

interviews were collected in dwellings.

Questions focussed on surface area, number

of occupants, heating, cooling, water, lighting,

electrical appliances, kitchen, renewable

energies, and invoices. The analysis of the

interviews was done by Agencia d”Ecologia

Urbana. Finally, surveys were done to

dwellings built before 1976.

In the second half of 2010, 10.000 interviews

on energy consumption associated with

different kinds of urbanism and building

typologies were performed, while in

another study the water, gas and electricity

consumption of all public buildings of the

Viladecans Municipality was analysed.

As an illustrative example the survey in the

office building in Milton Keynes is elucidated

below.

Occupant Survey Pinnacle Building

In summer 2012, 130 staff members working

in the Pinnacle building were invited to

participate in a web-based survey about their

workspace. Of the 130 potential respondents,

83 completed online surveys were received

(64% response rate). The survey contained

a total of 79 questions, 57 of which were

displayed to all participants and 22 only

revealed depending upon the answers to

certain questions.

The standard survey included questions

on the following key aspects of the indoor

environment:

- Office Layout

- Office Furnishings

- Thermal Comfort

- Air Quality

- Lighting

- Acoustic Quality

- Cleanliness and Maintenance

- General Comments

An additional section about energy was also

included asking whether occupants were

aware and supportive of different aspects of

the cRRescendo measures. Overall, the survey

data show that the building is performing

well, except in the area of thermal comfort and

acoustical quality.

The majority (74%) of the respondents (as in

the Vizion resident survey) did not know the

building was connected to a combined heat

and power network. Similarly, more than half

(54%) did not know the building was designed

to be energy efficient. Nevertheless, 58% of the

respondents said they thought the building

was performing efficiently.

Overview

The table on the left shows the different social

research strategies pursued in each partner

city, with check marks indicating the type,

and the magnitude and relative success of the

effort devoted to different strategies. All cities

did more than one form of social research,

although each city tended to concentrate its

efforts in one area. Depending on the type of

research, some cities did more vigorous work

or produced more rigorous results than others.

More on socio-economic research can be

found in the community chapters of this book.

In addition the socio-economic work is also

well summarised in the downloadable and

elaborate cRRescendo Evaluation Report.

Satisfaction in Core Survey Categories

Graph showing the percentage of satisfied responses for each category in Milton Keynes

General Satisfaction Building (79%)

Thermal Comfort (30%)

Office Layout (62%)

Office Furnischings (75%)

Lighting (64%)

Acoustic Quality (30%)

Air Quality (44%)

Cleanliness and Maintenance (61%)


84 cRRescendo

6.1 Four cRRescendo cities

In Almere over 2000 dwellings have been built within

cRRescendo. Homes have been built in three efficiency

categories: “eco”, “solar” and “passive”. Monitoring

results show that overall the performance of the homes

is well in line with the expectations. For Eco Houses

the heat consumption tends to be even lower than

specified, because they were brought up to the same

insulation level as the Solar Houses. In addition, the

Solar Island has been built, producing enough heat for

the tap water needs for some 1000 households. The

yield is 1.2 GJ/m2, which is equal to that of individual

collectors.

New energy for growing communities Results, lessons and recommendations

66.1 Four cRRescendo cities

6.2 Diversity of projects in the different communities

6.3 EU policy lessons

6.4 Local policy and project level lessons

6.5 The building sector lessons

6.6 Bridging recessions

Based on the monitoring results collected in the first

monitoring year, the Almere cRRescendo project has

saved 31% (14 GWh) of primary energy compared to

a business as usual situation. The number does not

include high carbon reduction (up to over 90%) due to

cogeneration in Almere and by green electricity in the

community Columbuskwartier. The floor area of the

homes ended up larger than originally anticipated.

This happened especially in NPW and to the largest

extent in the areas where private commissioners built

their houses. Such effects could cause the total energy

demand for homes to keep rising, despite a substantial

increase in efficiency.


In Milton Keynes a new apartment building with 441

apartments and a new commercial building have been

built. In addition, a 3 MWe combined heat and power

generation plant is now in operation. The apartments

perform in line with CONCERTO specifications, but

the commercial buildings consume substantially more

electricity as well as heat. The CHP is performing at

a lower efficiency level than foreseen due to larger

periods of partial load operation than foreseen.

Nonetheless, based on the monitoring results to date,

30% primary energy (5.8 GWhprim) has been saved in

the project compared to business as usual. This includes

the reduction due to the CHP and to the PV-system on

the bus station that has been built in the fall of 2011.

In Ajaccio mostly refurbishment of apartment buildings,

in total some 420 apartments, has taken place. The

most ambitious building, the new public service office

building unfortunately is being built after the project.

Based on monitoring results of 30% of the refurbished

apartments, 0.1 GWhprim savings have been achieved

for these apartments. For 12% of the apartments overall

heat and solar hot water measurements were done. It

can be concluded that 30% of the heat was supplied by

renewable energy.

In Viladecans two public service buildings have been

newly built and two buildings have been refurbished.

One municipal technical service building is still to be

built. Preliminary results of monitoring of the four

buildings show mixed performances, varying from

5% increase in primary energy consumption of day

care centre la Pineda to 25% reduction for refurbished

Cultural Center Pablo Picasso. The PV-system (117 kWp)

performs according to expectations.

Based on the monitoring results to date: 0.5 GWhprim

primary energy has been saved in the project. These

savings are primarily due to the 117 kWp PV-system.

Solar Houses next to the kid-friendly KinderPath in Almere (left)

The popular Vizion residence showing the path towards a zero-carbon future in Milton Keynes (right)

It was not without a struggle but cRRescendo finally opened the minds for sustainability in Ajaccio (left)

PV solar energy illuminates at night the football facilities building Torre Roja in Viladecans (right)

86 cRRescendo

6.2 Diversity of projects in the different communities

For Almere, project primary energy savings are

substantial both in % as in GWhprim, primarily

achieved by increasing efficiency in buildings but also a

significant portion in renewable heat.

For Milton Keynes savings are considerable both in % as

in GWhprim, to a modest extent by increasing efficiency

in buildings and to a large extent by efficient generation

of heat and electricity by the CHP.

For Ajaccio, projected primary energy savings compared

to business as usual are comparatively modest but

nonetheless significant, based on efficiency measures

as well as renewable energy, both heat and electricity.

For Viladecans, the percentage of primary energy

savings is huge in % and modest in GWhprim, primarily

achieved by renewable electricity and to a modest

extent by efficiency measures, simply because the

number of solar PV systems are large compared with the

cRRescendo buildings.

It is interesting to note that electricity is becoming the

largest share of primary energy in buildings. For the

services sector this was already the case in the reference

situation, but with efficient buildings this is now also

the case for residential buildings, even in northern

climates like the Netherlands and the UK.

The most efficient homes built are the passive homes in

Almere, with a total final energy consumption of about

70 kWh/m2. The most efficient non-residential building

is refurbished Cultural Center Can Amat in Viladecans,

with (based on preliminary data) a total final energy

consumption of more than 90 kWh/m2.

For three out of five non-residential buildings

monitored consumption turned out to be significantly

Overview of cRRescendo as built up to 2012

Almere Milton Keynes Ajaccio Viladecans

Number of homes built / improved

2093 new single family dwellings and 329 apartments

441 new apartments419 apartments refurbished and 8 apartments newly built

-

Number of other buildings realised

Several schools, day care and healthcare centres combined 31,533 m2 of space (53 units)

commercial buildings combined 33,336 m2 of space

1000 m2 of public office building to be realised in 2014

3 new public service buildings 2 refurbished public service buildings total of 9,224 m2

Renewable energy realised

7135 m2 nett/ 7800 m2

gross Solar Island, 689 kWp PV

165 kWp PV346 m2 solar collectors, 5.5 kWp PV

191 m2 solar collectors, 239 kWp PV

Polygeneration realisedCity district heating extended and improved to low-carbon

3042 kWe CHP - -

Approximate measured primary energy savings

14 GWh (31%)* 5.8 GWh (30%) 0.11 GWh 0.5 GWh

Approximate energy from RES

12% heat in 1st; 20% electricity in 2nd community2

3% of electricity23% of heat;Electricity not measured

100% of electricity

* without primary energy saving by cogeneration; 100% green electricity not taken into account.


larger than expected. Even though discrepancies could

be caused by something as basic as operational hours,

it clearly shows the need to monitor, understand and

manage the consumption in non-residential buildings.

6.3 EU Policy lessons

Complex project management

cRRescendo has been a long (7 years) and complex

project which proved to be an enormous task to manage.

Furthermore many partners mention that the project

has also been heavy in an administrative way, creating

a lot of overhead costs. On the other hand we should

also see that this project delivered many great results

that without the support of CONCERTO would never

have been there. The amount of knowledge sharing and

learning was high.

Another lesson learned during this project was that

refurbishment projects with a high ambition are actually

even more difficult than new construction projects,

as the interests of the existing occupants need to be

incorporated and respected.

Recommendations for future projects:

- Definitely continue with similar CONCERTO

programmes, but consider to reduce:

- the amount of partners/communities per project

- the amount of deliverables/reports

- The overall coordinator had too little effective

instruments to steer all partners

Financial project management

Within cRRescendo the so-called “Clause 41” has turned

out to be one of the most important drivers for success.

Without this clause it would have been necessary for all

commercial/building parties to disclose their financial

accounts and keep separate administrative accounts.

Furthermore the exact calculation of the “additional

costs” of sustainability is an impossible task. Clause

41 enabled parties to claim their costs based on actual

performance. A disadvantage of this instrument is that

the financing/subsidy for the commercial realisation

partners only comes in at a very late stage in the project.

At that stage the money does not give that extra push in

the right direction anymore for which it was intended.


Find ways for ways to finance realisation work earlier in the

process, without increasing the risk of bad performance.

Knowledge sharing

Knowledge sharing, an important topic within

cRRescendo, has known some downs, but definitely

contributed to the success of the project. During the

project we have learned that partners and stakeholders

are “open” for receiving new knowledge at certain

(specific) moments, but that it also worked out

differently than anticipated before when writing the

contract.


- Focus the knowledge sharing in future projects

around the start and end date of the project. At the

start the EC could demand all partners to take note of

the current state of affairs and best practices in the

participating countries/the EU. And at the end of the

project the focus could be on dissemination of results

and lessons learned.

- Reserve a specific and separate budget for

dissemination for AFTER the moment the project is

fully finalized. We recommend to provide this budget

through a separate application.

- For monitoring we recommend the same approach.

So separate specific time and budget for thorough

monitoring research AFTER the main project is

finalised. This allows the technical partner to collect

enough high quality data and focus on high quality

analyses. Furthermore and just as important the

monitoring research in cRRescendo has proved that

construction projects and (new) house owners need

some time to settle: monitoring data becomes more

stable and reliable after the first year.

- Try to base the knowledge sharing in future project on

a more scientific basis.

Knowledge sharing between EC projects

The work of CONCERTO Plus and later Premium has

been very useful. This counts for the reports, but

especially for the meetings that were organised for

exchange of CONCERTO projects.

The transfer from the CONCERTO Plus to the CONCERTO

Premium organisation could have been planned

better in advance as this inevitably lead to loss of

knowledge. The EU wide activities with meetings in

Brussels and the overall monitoring are perceived as

very useful. Additionally the regional events organised

by CONCERTO Plus in the first years were also very

informative. Unfortunately these events were not

organised anymore by the CONCERTO Premium.

There is not a single EU-wide harmonised solution for success, but knowledge transfer within EU projects has proven to be very valuable to speed up energy transition in other cities.

88 cRRescendo


- Organise both knowledge sharing on EU level and on a

more regional level.

- Reintroduce the regional CONCERTO Plus/Premium

meetings.

Observer cities

The cooperation with the participating Observer cities

has also been one with ups and downs, but finally with

good results. It was difficult to keep the Observers

interested throughout the whole project. This may be

caused by the length (7 years!) of the project. Lessons

learned from this are that every partner/Observer needs

an own specific interest in order to actively participate

during the whole running time of the project.

Eventually, we were able to attract the observers’

attention again by demonstrating the results of the

projects in four main cities in the fifth and sixth year,

and by showing ways to increase their own direct gain

in the project.


- Keep on involving other cities through the “Observer”

construction in future projects.

- At kick-off observers can be active in peer-reviewing

and excursions to example communities. The special

connection does lead to results in future projects and

policy that would not happen otherwise.

- During the mid of the project the Observers’ attention

must be drawn by special dedicated sessions and

presentations during the annual project meetings.

- Use instruments to revive the interest at the end

when results and lessons learnt become available.

Cherish Diversity

We have learned within this project that there is no such

thing as one blueprint or approach for all communities.

The main reason for this is that the local situation,

policies, laws, economy, and cultures often differ too

much to be truly comparable. But is this an issue, and

does this mean we cannot learn from each other? The

answer is: no but we have to be realistic.

When the CONCERTO initiative was prepared in

2003, the vision was based on a more harmonised

ideal of paving the way to an energy neutral Europe.

The practise of CONCERTO has however given us an

extremely important, but large cookbook with a large

palette of colourful solutions for every corner of Europe.

Recommendation for future projects:

- Acknowledge the fact that these types of projects

inherently contain a lot of differences and that not

one harmonised solution or approach provides a

guarantee for success.

6.4 Local policy and project level lessons

Translating EU demands and international differences to

successful local projects

A fundamental problem for projects like cRRescendo is

how to translate complex EU requirements to the local

practice without having to many risks.

Within cRRescendo, e.g. to minimise risks payments

were only made after a certain activity was already

finished; but at this late moment the direct added value

to the building process is unfortunately lower. Project

developers have told us that they sometimes got the

feeling that the (big) contribution they made to the

success of the project was not always balanced with the

financial support received. Recommendations for future

projects:

- For next projects we recommend to work out a

detailed plan about the flow of money throughout

the project directly at the start of the project. And

make sure this plan integrates the interests of all

participants, is fair and is understood by all partners.

- Project finance can be made simpler by using very

straightforward rules like: a partner will get this

amount of money as soon as a specific set of criteria is

met.

Communication and dissemination

It has a great value for a project to have one (or more)

real icons for sustainability. This can create both local

acquaintance and involvement of the local community,

and also national or even international awareness of the

project. Furthermore such an icon can also be a good

tool for showing your vision behind the project.

In Almere for example the Solar Island has been such an

icon. It has attracted a lot of attention and visitors to

the Almere project, both national as international.

We also learned that good communication moments

arise when physical milestones (such as “first stone/

pole”, completion of the building, etc.) are reached. These

need to be celebrated, so the communication plan could

be built around these moments. Furthermore we learned

that locally people seem to be open for communication,

Be aware of the difference between new construction (address building companies!) and renovation projects (address house occupants!) when selecting the most appropriate instruments to reach your goal.


The Almere Solar Island is used for communication to the local community. European astronaut Wubbo Ockels ( 2014) has inaugurated the innovative system and joins the festivity together with Alderman Steunenberg

only on the moments the information affects/benefits

them directly. Recommendations for future projects:

- Include icons for sustainability in future projects as

they draw the necessary attention both to the icon

itself, but also to related project activities in the

neighbourhood.

- Set up a clear communication plan up front in which

communication moments are smartly chosen (for

example around “milestone moments”).

- It is important to secure the participation of the city

mayors.

Ensure sufficient knowledge on municipal level

This project has proved (in all communities, and observer

cities) that an active local government is key for success.

The successes realized within cRRescendo would not

have been possible without the input of the local politics.

But on the other hand it became clear that to reach this

a lot of (technical and social) knowledge was necessary.

An example is the process of negotiating large contracts

with project developers. Here there is a great need of

skilled local civil servants. Another successful example

was the internal sustainability-lab in Almere with

technical expertise which can be called in on the fly at

projects all over the city.

Recommendation for future projects:

- Ensure sufficient knowledge on municipal level.

Effective local (performance based) instruments

We have seen several successful examples like a local

“carbon offset fund”, “ground quotes”, a “performance

based tender competition”, etc. A key success factor in

these local instruments was the use of performance

based factors in the process, instead of building

prescriptions.

The decision making process within renovation

projects is very different and more complicated than

for new construction projects. In renovation projects

often a majority vote is needed to accept the proposed

renovation plans. In renovations the amount of subsidy

can directly influence the decision of the inhabitant. In

new construction projects subsidies are less effective,

than in renovation situations. In fact they only matter

in higher ambition projects, as the costs are then

substantially higher.

Another success approach considering the instruments

was aim for gradual and manageable improvements

in energy performance. By setting targets that are

one step higher than (but not way beyond) the current

practice it proved to be possible reach great results, but

also without high additional costs or house prices. This

approach also ensures that effective scale up possibilities

exist while already proven technologies are used which

can benefit quickly from economies of scales and

connected price drops.


- Make a conscious choice for effective local instruments

to reach your goal. In our experience a performance

based element within this instrument can be an

important and effective ingredient.

- Be aware of the difference between new construction

and renovation projects when selecting the most

appropriate instruments to reach your goal. Incentives

in a renovation project need to focus directly on the

(many) occupants of the houses, while instruments in

a new to be built development can address mainly the

real estate developers and building companies.

- Include (performance based) goals that are a step

ahead of the current practice, but still manageable to

ensure a (cost) efficient execution and scale up.

- Financial instruments can be very effective, but be

aware of possible unwanted side effects, and keep it

simple to avoid difficulties during execution.

6.5 The building sector lessons

Involvement of local building partners

Because the building partners are the ones actually

realising the project, their positive contribution is vital

90 cRRescendo

for the project success. At the start of cRRescendo it was

the intention to involve the local building companies

directly into the European project by making them

partners. In practice the companies couldn”t or didn”t

want to satisfy the accompanying demands like the

needed insight into their accounting systems and the

yearly reporting requirements. This was comprehensible

from their perspective, but also caused that they

were less involved within the project. In general the

building companies want a level playing field and clear

agreements with the municipality. Financial incentives

are only helpful in developments with very high

ambitions.

During cRRescendo we learned that the optimal mode

for cooperation between companies and the municipality

differs with the level of ambition of the project:

- For relatively straightforward projects where the

ambition is one step higher than the current practice,

and when there is a good instrument to verify it (e.g.

the current building code) the project can best be

arranged through a straightforward contract with the

municipality. Incentives that are given must be effective

at the start of the project. A good example is a reduction

of the ground price.

- Projects with a high ambition, the icon projects, are

often much more innovative and therefore much less

predictable. The building party can best be involved

in the project as a (real) project partner with its own

budget/subsidy, giving the needed flexibility. But if the

ambitions are not met, the partner will not get paid.

- Finally for projects in between (two steps ahead on

current practice) the cooperation could be more in the

form of a coproduction between the municipality and

the project developer. These types of projects also need a

larger scale (than the icons) to have impact, and this type

of cooperation helps the parties to share risk together.

Some of the most successful parts of the cRRescendo

projects were the result of close co-development

between the municipality and the project developers.


- At the start of the project work on a way to give the

building companies a clear and determining role within

the project.

- Set up of the cooperation level based on ambition of the

project. The higher the ambition of the project developer

the more decisive he can be during the realization.

6.6 Bridging recessions

After 7 years of hard work cRRescendo has delivered not

only bricks and stones, installations, and monitoring

data, but also a lot of knowledge and lessons learned for

future projects.

The lessons and recommendations have been

summarized along the levels described before. It was only

possible to draw such a set of conclusions because we

took our research and studies serious.

Ecofys, Ademe and the University of Oxford have

developed standardised methods to monitor the

technical and non-technical issues of the project, in

order to be able to improve future replications of the

cRRescendo concept. Only sometimes the results were of

limited use; e.g. when partners were pressed for time so

the monitoring was performed during less than one year

(and therefore not really useful).

Equal important to cRRescendo were professional

training activities and dissemination: both internal

(between the four partner communities) and external

(to associate communities and broad European level)

dissemination.

cRRescendo had a final dissemination activity in the

successful “cRRescendo ConfeRRence, Step by step

towards a carbon neutral built environment”, held in

October 2011 in the city of Almere. The final conference

was for a broad range of target groups (authorities,

researchers, builders, project developers, architects,

etc.) and the proceedings can be found on:

www.cRRescendo.net

We are proud that we were successful in engaging

the public in the cRRescendo communities and the

stakeholders in the local markets. Outreach to other

citizens and local politics was such that we believe

that crossing the recessions a new latent strong wish

originated for going all the way to a carbon free society

as soon as possible. This strong commitment also calls

opposing forces, true, but they are not strong enough

to stop it. This is the new promise in the air at the end

of the recession: what a difference with 2003 when we

started and everything was still so expensive and almost

experimental.

This chapter continues on page 10

A municipality can set up the cooperation and agreement based on the level of ambition of the project. The higher the ambition of the project the more decisive the project developer can be during realization.



Annex IRealised cRRescendo projects p92 - p97

Annex IIPeople behind the projects p98 - p99

Annex IIISolar Potential in Europep100 - p101


Name

Photo

Community

Area description

Type built

Number of homes/buildings

Total gross area (m2)

Average area per house (m2)

Measures in buildings

Energy certificate

Generation of renewable power or heat

Solar thermal (m2) / pv (kWp)

Remarks

Name

Photo

Community

Area description

Type built





Energy certificate



Remarks

Alm

ere

Alm

ere

Almere Solar Island Eco-apartments Solar Apartments Eco-houses

Noorderplassen West Columbuskwartier Columbuskwartier Columbuskwartier

New-built district New-built district New-built district New-built district

Solar Thermal Plant New Ecohouse (apartment) New Solar House (apartment)New Ecohouse (single family dwelling)

(Service building) 114 83 69

9,756 7,385 12,704

86 89 184

High insulation High insulation High insulation

EPC 0.8 EPC 0.62/ Cert. ZonneWoning EPC < 0.8

Solar Thermal Collectors (Output = 8.400-9.400 GJ/yr)

District heating based on waste heat

PV panels on less than half of the apartments, District heating based on waste heat

PV panels on half of the houses, District heating based on waste heat

7.800 m2 17 kWp in total

Solar thermal plant is directly connected to the district heating system of Almere.

Apartments with PV are certified Solar Houses (all apartments fulfil the BEST table for solar houses).

Health centre Office building Schools

Columbuskwartier Columbuskwartier Columbuskwartier

New-built district New-built district New-built district

Health Centre Office New primary schools

3 functional units 1 6 functional units

625 45 5,178





Sports accommodation

Columbuskwartier

New-built district

Sports Accomodation

1

1,071

High insulation

PV solar plant, District heating based on waste heat

44 kWp

cRRescendo 93

De Verwondering Eco-apartments Solar Apartments Eco-houses

Columbuskwartier Noorderplassen West Noorderplassen West Noorderplassen West


New Solar House (single family dwelling)

Eco Apartment Solar Apartment Eco House

342 84 48 1,462

47,993 7,685 6,586 257,551

140 91 137 176

High insulation High insulation High insulation High insulation

EPC 0.6; Cert. ZonneWoning EPC 0.89 EPC 0.72 EPC 0.89

PV panels on more than half of the houses, District heating based on waste heat

District heating based on Solar Island and waste heat



325 kWp in total

The majority of the houses are certified Solar Houses (all houses fulfil the BEST table for solar houses).

Apartments are not certified Solar Houses but fulfil the BEST table for solar houses.

Solar Houses

Noorderplassen West

New-built district

Solar House

116

19,815

171

High insulation

EPC 0.71 / None


Houses are not certified Solar Houses but fulfil there quirements for solar houses.

Day-care centre Health centre Shopping centre

Noorderplassen West Noorderplassen West Noorderplassen West

New-built district New-built district New-built district

Child Day-care facilities New health accomodations New shops

5 functional units 22 functional units 11 functional units

1,382 9,344 1,757





Rented Passive Houses Goede Steede

Columbuskwartier

New-built district

New Passive Houses

103

10,815

105

Extreme high insulation, Triple glazing, Balanced ventilation with heat recovery

EPC 0.38/equal to Passive House

PV panels, District heating based on waste heat

108 kWp in total

First serial built passive house project in the rental sector in the Netherlands.

CO2 Neutral House

Columbuskwartier

New-built district

CO2 neutral house

1

225

225

Extreme high insulation, Triple glazing, Balanced ventilation with heat recovery

EPC 0.03

PV panels, District heating based on

waste heat, Small wind turbines

6,7 kWp

PV has been architecually integrated in the building façade.


Milto

n K

eyn

es

Name

Photo

Community

Area description

Type built





Energy certificate


CHP (MW) / pv (kWp)

Remarks

Alm

ere

Name

Photo

Community

Area description

Type built





Energy certificate



Remarks

International School Almere Dependance De Windwijzer

CascadePark-Poort Noorderplassen West

New-built district New-built district

New secondary school New primary school

1 1

5,135 961

High insulation High insulation



26 kWp

CHP Thameswey Vizion Residential Sainsbury’s supermarket Vizion Retail

Central Milton Keynes Central Milton Keynes C4.1 (Vizion) Central Milton Keynes C4.1 (Vizion) Central Milton Keynes C4.1 (Vizion)


Combined heat and power plant Residential building Supermarket Small retail stores

(Service building) 441 homes in 14 blocks 1 10

26,887 10.000 3.000

61


EcoHomes “Very Good” / BREEAM “Excellent”

BREEAM “Excellent” BREEAM “Excellent”

3,04 MWe and 3,07 MW

th

District heating (and electricity) based on the CHP plant.



6.1 MW in total

A similar engine was added in 2009 increasing the capacity to 6.08 MW

e and 6.14 MW

th.

The “green roof” of the Sainsbury’s creates a podium garden for residents.

Primary schools

Noorderplassen West

New-built district

New primary schools

2

6,035

Unknown, only PV panels are part of cRRescendo project.

PV panels on main building De

Windwijzer, District heating based

on Solar Island and waste heat

47 kWp

Private contractors & other

Noorderplassen West and Poort

New-built district

Private Commissioned & other

Sustainable measures were not mandatory. Only PV panels are part of cRRescendo project.

EPC < 0.80

PV panels on 3 houses, District heating based on waste heat

9.9 kWp on 3 houses

Although not mandatory around 200 houses complied with the ambitious cRRescendo standards.

cRRescendo 95

Vizion Offices Pinnacle Pinnacle Retail PV Bus Station

Central Milton Keynes C4.1 (Vizion) Central Milton Keynes B3.2 (Pinnacle) Central Milton Keynes B3.2 (Pinnacle) Central Milton Keynes

New-built district New-built district New-built district Existing district

Commercial office space Office Small retail stores Roof integrated solar plant

1 3 Several (1)

1.100 18,281 955


BREEAM “Excellent” EPC “A” / BREEAM “Excelent” EPC “A” / BREEAM “Excelent”


District heat District heatPV solar plant on the flat roof of the previous bus station.

165 kWp

The installation had to respect the “architectural integrity” of the existing building.

Community Disposal Centre Sports facility Fanny Blankers Koen KlokHuis Groenhorst College

District Almere Poort Almere Noord West Columbuskwartier District Almere Poort

New-built district Existing community building New-built district New-built district

PV on municipality recycling station

PV on sports facility PV on educational centre PV on new secondary school

1 1 1 1







PV panels, Small wind turbine,



37 kWp 45 kWp 1,4 kWp 23 kWp

The KlokHuis facility has also been used for dissemination and education.


Vilad

ecan

s

Name

Photo

Community

Area description

Type built





Energy certificate



Remarks

Aja

ccio

Name

Photo

Community

Area description

Type built





Energy certificate



Remarks

Rue de la Porte Monte e Mare St. Paul Les Cannes

Historical Centre Urban renovation area Urban renovation area Urban renovation area

Existing district Existing district Existing district Existing district

New building apartments Refurbishment Refurbishment New office building (to be built)

8 homes in 1 building 92 homes in 2 buildings 52 homes in 2 buildings 1

602 6,370 3,637 1,000

75 70 70

High energy performance level of the building envelop

Refurbishment heating systemImproved ventilation, heating and lighting system, Roof insulation, Casa system

Ambitious specifications for insulation and ventilation

“Energy-positive”

PV panels, Solar thermal collectors Solar thermal collectors Solar thermal collectors PV panels, Small wind turbines

12 m2 and 5.5 kWp 98 m2 94 m2 20 kWp

An unsafe and unhealthy social rented building was demolished and replaced.

Build in a sensitive urban zone with high public housing, unemployment, and a low education level.


This energy positive building is developed within but built after the cRRescendo project period.

La Pineda Can Xic Torre Roja Pablo Picasso

Existing district Existing district Recreation area Existing district

New building day-care centre Renovated Youth Centre New sports facility building Renocated cultural centre

1 1 1 1

1,144 765 1,512 821

High insulation of roof, floor and windows, High efficient lighting and cooling


Passive solar energy, Solar thermal collectors

PV panels Solar thermal collectors

12.5 m2 6 kWp 156 m2

cRRescendo 97

St. Jean 2 Pietralba

Urban renovation area Urban renovation area

Existing district Existing district

Refurbishment Refurbishment

196 homes in 4 buildings 80 homes in 10 buildings

22,904 6,985

117 87

Improved ventilation, heating and lighting system, Insulation of roof, walls and windows, Casa system.

Improved ventilation, heating and lighting system, Insulation of roof, floor, walls and windows.

Solar thermal collectors

142 m2



CEIP Ponent La Marina Park Atrium Cubic Municipal Library

Existing district Existing harbour area Existing district Existing district Existing building

New school building PV on new pergola PV on sports and theatre centre PV on conference centre PV on municipal library

1 0 1 1 1

4,982

Very high insulation

Calener / Lider Energy Label A

PV panels, Solar thermal collectors PV panels PV panels PV panels PV panels

22.5 m2 and 95 kWp 16 kWp 94 kWp 23 kWp 4.9 kWp

Smart devices like digital whiteboards, make this first Solar Smart School a model for other municipal buildings.


Netherlands

Gemeente Almere

Ivo Booijnk

Adri Duivesteijn

Emil ter Horst

Annemarie Jorritsma,

Jack Laddé

Erwin Lindeijer

Jeroen Lubbers

Alex van Oost

Anne Marie van Osch

Sander Post

Linda Prins-van Essen

Marijke Quist

Ben Scholten

Tilly Stassen

Edwin van der Wel

Aleida Winkelman

Ecofys

Kathrin Braun

Antonin van de Bree

Pim van Gennip

Maarten Graveland

Vera Haaksma

Edith Molenbroek

Caspar Noach

Lou Ramaekers

Bart van der Ree

Nesen Surmeli

NUON

Gerrit Daalmeijer

Henkjan Marsman

Charlie de Ruiter

Frank de Vries

NMFF

Robert Atkins

Kim Boerboom

Vera Dam

United Kingdom

Milton Keynes Council

Martin Davies

Jeremy Draper

Geoff Snelson

Annex IIPeople behind the projects

The cRRescendo project was realised with the input and efforts of many individuals and

organisations. Mentioned here are the people from project partners. They are listed

alphabetically at the affiliation during their involvement.

HCA (formerly English Partnerships)

Steve Ball

Alan Bates

Allison DeMarco

Ian Duncan

Stan Farmer

Sue Green

Paul Hammond

Anthony Leney

Caroline Madden

Jon Muncaster

Andrew Pearson

Emyr Poole

Muhammad Rafique

Ann Seipp

cRRescendo 99

Paul Van Geete

Richard Watkins

NEF / USEA

Ian Byrne

Brad Hook

Ruth Wharton

Arup

Rupert Blackstone

Malcolm Heath

Chris Trott

John Piggott

Barry Austin

Oxford University - Environmental Change

Institute

Brenda Boardman

Sarah Darby

Nick Eyre

Kathryn Janda

Anu Jogesh

Gavin Killip

Pernille Schillerup

France

Ajaccio Municipality

Christine Bernardini

Denis Bravi

Frédéric Debortoli

ADEME

Virginie Bollini

ADEME DR Corse

Philippe Istria

Alexis Milano

Corsican Regional Authority

Loic Chastanet

Maria Guidicelli

Marie-Dominique Paoli

François Noël Rossi

Thierry Souchard

Spain

Viladecans City Council

M. Arcos

A. Chaves

I. Fabró

E. Galisteo

M. Jarque

Raquel Millán Lopez

Carmen Pérez Figueras

X. Roig

J. Rodríguez

C. Ruiz,

C. Sainz

E. Serra

VIMED

I. Marin

S. Presmanes

J. Regalado

VIGIP

J. Crespo

J. Giner

SaAs Sabaté Asociados Arquitectura y

Sostenibilidad

J. Sabaté

Observers cities

SAN de Senart

Jerome Bourgis

Nathalie Dupont

Frederique Vinay

Sofia , Bulgaria

Nadia Nikolova

Silvia Savkova

Misterbianco, Sicily, Italy

Sergio Campanella

Mariangela Torrisi

In loving memory of Raquel Millan Lopez ( 2013),

a driving force in Viladecans to the cRRescendo

project and main Catalan contributor to this book.

100

PVGIS http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvgis/

http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvgis/

cRRescendo 101

Roma

BucureştiLjubljana

Bern

Budapest

BratislavaWien

Paris

Luxembourg

Praha

Bruxelles/Brussel

Valletta

Athínai

Lisboa

Madrid

Warszawa

AmsterdamBerlin

Dublin

Vilnius

København

Rīga

Stockholm

TallinnOslo

Helsinki

Sofia

Zagreb

London

San Marino

Reykjavík

Tiranë

Sarajevo

Minsk

Podgorica

Skopje

Belgrade

Kyiv

Chişinău

Vaduz

Andorra la Vella

Nicosia

Tunis

Ankara

Dimashq

Rabat

Moscow

Amman

Bayrut

T'Bilisi

El Djazaïr

Jerusalem

60°E50°E40°E

30°E

30°E

20°E

20°E

10°E

10°E

0°

0°

10°W

10°W20°W30°W

60°N

60°N

50°N

50°N

40°N

40°N

JointResearch Centre

[kWh/m2]

[kWh/kWpeak] Yearly sum of solar electricity generated by optimally-inclined1kWpsystem with a performance ratio of 0.75

http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvigs/cmaps/mapinfo.htmGrid resolution (enhanced by terrain) Map projection

Data description:

Authors:

Legal notice: Neither the European Commission nor any personacting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use

which might be made of this publication.The boundaries and names shown on this map do not imply official

endorsement or acceptance by the European Commission.

www.eea.europa.euwww.gvm.jrc.it/glc2000

www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/

www.geonames.orgwww.naturalearthdata.com

0 100 200 300 400 500km

Ancillary data sources:

In collaboration with:

PV output: difference between fixed optimum angle and one-axistracking system

Optimum inclination of PV modules to maximize yearly energy yield

Optimumangle [°]

Comparison of global irradiation in urban areas per country

www.cmsaf.eu

520222426283032343638404244464850

750 900 1050 1200 1350 1500600<450 >1650

Gain in output [%]

>50

40

30

<20

Annex III Solar Potential in Europe

cRRescendo 103

vimed vigip


Colophon

Authors

Emil ter Horst, Caspar Noach, Leendert Verhoef and

Vera Haaksma

Source material

Paul Hammond, Raquel Millán Lopez, Virginie Bollini and

all partners. Chapter 5 is based on “Columbuskwartier, de

ontdekking van een duurzame wijk”, Almere, May 2009, with

texts from Connie Franssen, Berthilde Lammertink and

Alex van Oost.

Graphic design

Blik grafisch ontwerp, Utrecht, www.klikopblik.nl

Printing

Schorel Drukkerij, Spijk, www.schorel.net

Picture creditsFront side: Almere The Marvel/De Verwondering, Solar Houses

in the social rented sector around the KinderPath and the

SunDial (photo: Koopmans Bouwgroep).

Page 2: Almere The Marvel/De Verwondering, Solar Houses

with PV in the façade with view on the CO2 neutral house by Han

van Zwieten (photo: Koopmans Bouwgroep).

Page 6: Milton Keynes, Vizion Apartments with Roof Garden

landscaping on the roof of the Sainsbury’s supermarket

(photo: Homes and Communities Agency).

Page 57: Ajaccio, Refurbishment and energy saving measures for

social housing on Corsica (photo: Ville de Ajacio).

Page 70: Viladecans, The first primary “Smart School” CEIP Nova

Escola Ponent (photo: Ajuntament de Viladecans).

Page 100 (left): Almere Columbuskwartier, PV solar panels

being installed (photo: TBI-Koopmans).

Page 102: Almere Noorderplassen West, The iconic Solar Island

(photo: Gemeente Almere).

Back side & page 100-101: Photovoltaic Solar Electricity

Potential in European Countries (Thomas Huld, Irene Pinedo-

Pascua, JRC, European Commission, 2012, in collaboration with

www.cmsaf.eu). Legal notice: Neither the European Commission

nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible

for the use which might be made of this publication. The

boundaries and names shown on this map do not imply official


Other photography: TBI-Koopmans, Horisun, J.A. Prins

(www.panopictures.nl) and all cRRescendo partners.

GlossaryBREEAM = (Building Research Establishment Environmental

Assessment Methodology) = is a certification method for the

sustainability and energy performance of a building

CHP = cogeneration of heat and power (electric energy).

CIS = Cupper Indium Selenide: is a type of PV solar cell.

CMK = Central Milton Keynes

EPC = (Energy Performance Coefficient) = the standard building

code certification method for assessing the energy performance

of a building in the NL

GJ = 278 kWh

GWhprim = unit for saved primary energy (in kWh or in PJ)

kWp = kiloWattpeak: is the standardised nominal power of a solar

system and equals more or less the (maximum) power a PV system

or unit produces when the sun is at noon (solar radiation

1000 W/m2 @ 25 degrees Celcius temperature)

MK = Milton Keynes

MWe = electric power expressed in 1000’s kW’s.

MWth = idem for thermal power (heat)

Polygeneration = almost equal as CHP: to generate more than one

source of energy, e.g. heat and power.

PV solar energy = photovoltaic solar energy or electricity directly

produced by solar cells from sun light.

SHW = Solar Hot Water energy technology

Zero-carbon = a concept for a community of producing just as

much carbon by using energy (e.g. on a yearly base) as that the

community is saving by producing renewable energy or biomass.

Zero-energy = more or less idem for energy

Editor in chief

Emil ter Horst (Horisun, on behalf of Almere)

Editor

Caspar Noach (Ecofys)

Affiliations, financial support and contact

European Commission: www.CONCERTO.eu

Municipality Almere: www.almere.nl

HCA: www.homesandcommunities.co.uk

Contact:

For more info and download: www.cRRescendo.net

Publisher

Horisun Renewable Energy Strategies, Utrecht, www.horisun.nl

ISBN 9789082257601 | © Almere, 2014

http://www.klikopblik.nl

http://www.schorel.net

http://www.cmsaf.eu

http://www.panopictures.nl

http://www.concerto.eu

http://www.Almere.nl

http://www.homesandcommunities.co.uk

http://www.cRRescendo.net

http://www.horisun.nl

Roma

BucureştiLjubljana

Bern

Budapest

BratislavaWien

Paris

Luxembourg

Praha

Bruxelles/Brussel

Valletta

Athínai

Lisboa

Madrid

Warszawa

AmsterdamBerlin

Dublin

Vilnius

København

Rīga

Stockholm

TallinnOslo

Helsinki

Sofia

Zagreb

London

San Marino

Reykjavík

Tiranë

Sarajevo

Minsk

Podgorica

Skopje

Belgrade

Kyiv

Chişinău

Vaduz

Andorra la Vella

Nicosia

Tunis

Ankara

Dimashq

Rabat

Moscow

Amman

Bayrut

T'Bilisi

El Djazaïr

Jerusalem

60°E50°E40°E

30°E

30°E

20°E

20°E

10°E

10°E

0°

0°

10°W

10°W20°W30°W60

°N

60°N

50°N

50°N

40°N

40°N

JointResearch Centre

[kWh/m2]

[kWh/kWpeak] Yearly sum of solar electricity generated by optimally-inclined1kWpsystem with a performance ratio of 0.75

http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvigs/cmaps/mapinfo.htmGrid resolution (enhanced by terrain) Map projection

Data description:

Authors:

Legal notice: Neither the European Commission nor any personacting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use

which might be made of this publication.The boundaries and names shown on this map do not imply official


www.eea.europa.euwww.gvm.jrc.it/glc2000

www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/

www.geonames.orgwww.naturalearthdata.com

0 100 200 300 400 500km

Ancillary data sources:

In collaboration with:

PV output: difference between fixed optimum angle and one-axistracking system

Optimum inclination of PV modules to maximize yearly energy yield

Optimumangle [°]

Comparison of global irradiation in urban areas per country

www.cmsaf.eu

520222426283032343638404244464850

750 900 1050 1200 1350 1500600<450 >1650

Gain in output [%]

>50

40

30

<20

Milton KeynesA first CHP and the ambitious Vizion & Pinnacle buildings have been replicated in the market and are the stepping stones to the development of large near-zero carbon integrated smart neighbourhoods

AlmereFrom a quantity driven urban planning through the Solar Island and a healthy near-zero-carbon sustainable community now to a zero-energy Smart City in 2022

AjaccioFrom lacking behind on sustainability through over 400 energy saving refurbished houses now to energy positive building at the French forefront

ViladecansEducation and showcasing sustainable community buildings and PV solar energy during the recession paves the way to the ambitious eco-district Llevant

San de Sénart

Misterbianco

Brussels

Sofia

CONCERTO inspires an innovative energy policy and contributes towards an energy independent Europe based on environmental, social and economic sustainability

New energy for growing communities

ISBN 9789082257601 | Horisun, Utrecht

new energy for growing communities - ecofys … energy for growing communities 7 preface the...

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