1 MW in Amersfoort

7/23/2019 1 MW in Amersfoort

1/8

PHOTOVOLTAIC AMERSFOORT(The Netherlands)

Photovoltaic energy is not really a very new technology. Although its principle is known for many years

now, quite a lot of obstacles hinder its full market penetration. One of the possible remedies (besidesnew developments making the technology cheaper) can be either large-scale fabrication of solar

panels or innovative policies on urban level, trying to make this technology achievable for many more

people than before. The City of Amersfoort and the Dutch energy supplier REMU used the opportunity

of the building of a completely new quarter to experiment with photovoltaic energy. They did not only

concentrate on technical aspects, but also on availability of the technique.

GENERAL ASPECTSAmersfoort is a municipality situated in the centralpart of the Netherlands, about 50 km fromAmsterdam and 20 km from Utrecht, havingexcellent railway connections.

Amersfoort has about 122,000 inhabitants, butexpects further population growth. This makes itnecessary to change the citys energy policy if thegoal of reducing CO2-emissions is to be obtained.

Climatic data:

Hours of sun per year : 1477 h/aAnnual Mean Temperature: 10 C

NETHERLANDS

Amsterdam

Groningen

Utrecht

Einhoven

Den Haag

Rotterdam

Maastricht

Amers foor t

CONTEXTThe City of Amersfoort decided that in its new quarter Nieuwland which comprises about5,000 homes and about 70 ha for industrial purposes the buildings should serve toexperiment both new environmental techniques and owner structures for them in order toachieve a high grade of sustainable living.In order to achieve these goals, the local authority has appointed an environmentalsupervisor being charged to assess all subsidiary plans on the basis of the environmentalobjectives, to inform and encourage the parties involved.For this purpose, the so-called DCBA method has been used. For each environmentalaspect, a base line situation (D) and an optimum situation (A) were defined. They provide astandard against which each design can be checked. It has been agreed with planners andbuilders that the target level must at least be C, i.e. on all fronts at least one step better thannormal. In the case of the solar energy project, it has been convened to go even further: levelB and in some situations even A.The planning for this new development started in 1995 and should be finished by 1999.Nieuwland comprises of four different quarters that have been build in different phases of thedevelopment, each of them having its own characteristics.


2/8

EXPERIENCE OF AMERSFOORTThe City of Amersfoort, REMU (N.V. RegionaleEnergiemaatschappij Utrecht the UtrechtElectricity Corporation), the builders anddevelopers implied seek to demonstrate that the

use of solar energy can result in architecturallysound design. They also wish to gain experience inthe use of solar energy in various situations: inrented housing, owner-occupied housing and non-residential buildings. A special importance istherefore laid on aspects of financing and ownerstructures in this case study. Five different projectsusing solar energy have been undertaken byREMU in co-operation with many other partners:

Three low-energy primary schools

As REMU is aware of the fact that schools are a place where next generations are educatedand that they are a meeting point for the residents of a district, it also paid attention to thethree primary schools to be built in Nieuwland. In two of them, provisions were made tointegrate solar panels, the first one already being finished in 1995, thus too late to integratesolar panels into its roof.In 1995, SRO, a local building company and REMU signed an agreement covering theinstallation of solar panels. SRO granted REMU a right of superficies as they installed thesolar panels and receive the electricity generated. In exchange, REMU paid part of the extracost resulting from other energy-saving measures applied in the schools. Subsidies weregranted by NOVEM and the EU.One of these schools was fitted with 192 solar panels and completed in 1996, the other onehaving a roof with 124 so-called AC modules and completed in 1997. These modules havea small inverter on the back, which means that each panel provides alternating current to thegrid. Both installations together can generate about 8,000 kWh annually. To visualise energyconsumption and production, the schools have displays showing current and cumulative dataand comparisons with target figures. They are hung up in central points in the schools, visiblefor anyone to actively illustrate the performance of the installations.

MW photovoltaics project

After a first exploration of possibilities, it was decided to aim for an installed capacity of 1MW. Based on an average of twenty square meters of solar panels per house and a peakcapacity of 100 W per m

2, a specification has been made in 1994 to build about 500 houses.

The urban development was structured to allow (optimum) installation of solar panels on as

many houses as possible. It was also specified that all designers and developers involvedshould co-operate in the implementation of the solar project. It comprises altogether eightsectors on which nine developers are working. Construction of the first sector started in 1997and should be finished before 2000. REMU applied two different methods when selling thesehouses. One half of the solar panels will remain the property of REMU with similar conditionsfor using the roof space, except that the house-owners are remunerated by REMU for theuse of their roofs. For twenty percent of the electricity generated on their roof, they willreceive a sum equal to the normal domestic consumer tariff. The other half of theinstallations is to be sold to the residents. The current generated will be fed into the REMU


3/8

grid with the residents receiving the normal domestic user tariff for the whole electricityproduced.

Solar energy on fifty rented dwellings

Within one project of the Woningcorporatie N.V. SCW, the Amersfoort housing corporationhas completed a project comprising 114 rented houses with 50 of them using combined solarpower. Thereby, REMU gains experience concerning its implementation and management in

social housing. The construction was started in 1994 and completed in June 1996.5.6 m2 of solar collectors are on the roof of each house, situated next to the ridge.Immediately below them are the solar cells 22.5 m2per house. A row of windows below the

solar cells provides direct solarradiation into the houses and forms aseparation between the energy roofand the tile roof lower down. Therehave been many tests onimpermeability to water, wind load,thermal shock and durability. Thecurrent gained from the solar cells about 82,500 kWh per year altogether

is supplied to the mains while the hotwater is used in the housesthemselves. A solar/ gas combinationunit with a capacity of 15 kW each hasbeen installed in each house.

The housing corporation made the roofs available for the use of solar power. Between REMUand SCW, an agreement on management and ownership has been made. The solar-powerroof is the property of REMU, including supplementary provisions regarding access to theroof and the installations. The solar collectors and the solar/ gas combination units are theproperty of Gasrent Stegas B.V. and are rented by SCW.

Nineteen owner occupied homes with solar power

On 19 luxury owner-occupied houses in one of Nieuwlands districts, REMU has installedsolar roofs. Preparations started in 1995 with the last houses being completed in 1998.REMU wanted to investigate the possibilities of furthering solar energy in the private propertysector. The houses are private property while the solar panels belong to REMU. Therelationship between both parties has been set out in agreements with the building companyand the individual occupant. For them, the solar panels act as a waterproof roof covering.They pay nothing for construction and maintenance of this structure. In return, the ownermust prevent the panels from being overshadowed and may not make any changes to theroof. In case the owner wants to replace the solar panels, there are special agreements.REMU can access the roofs in the events of faults occurring and is responsible for anyleakage.

The partners also wanted to investigate whether it was possible to prefabricate the entire roofstructure in a workshop - tested on one of the houses first. But this revealed two predominantobjections: First, the fragility of the different parts during transport and secondly, theelements did not fit together accurately enough for the aluminium sections to match correctly.The necessary additional work during assembly cancelled thus out the logistical advantageof prefabrication. For the other eighteen houses, only the timber roof was prefabricated, afterwhich the profile sections and the solar panels were installed on site.


4/8

Two semi-detached balanced energy houses

A unit consisting of two semi-detached houses has been built inAmersfoort whose annual energyconsumption is fully covered by solarenergy. It was constructed in 1997/8,one half being used for dwellingpurposes, the other serving as an

Information Centre for SustainableEnergy open for the public. Besidesmany other features aimed atreducing the houses energyconsumption, the solar roof plays animportant role in the design of thehouse. Many different systems havebeen incorporated: solar collectors,normal solar panels, double-glazedtransparent panels, single-glazed

transparent panels, ordinary double glazing and sunblinds. Despite this combination withvarious thicknesses, an even roof surface has been achieved. The whole panel surface is

about 90 m2

, providing on average approximately 7,500 kWh of electricity per houseannually, while the 14 m2 of solar collectors provide three water tanks for different (storage)needs: domestic hot water, heating and a ground water layer at a depth of 12 m for long termstorage. An electric heat pump satisfies the rest of the heating requirement. The heat pumpas well as a supplementary tap-water heater in the kitchen are fed by the solar panels.

EVALUATION AND PERSPECTIVESIn mid-1999, four of the projects have already been completed. The 1 MW project is stillbeing implemented and should be completed in 1999. Approximately 1,150 homes in

Nieuwland will then have been equipped with solar collectors. About 570 homes will havetwenty or more m2of solar panels and nearly 400 homes will have one to five solar panels.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATIONREMU Informatiecentrum voor Duursame EnergieElectricity Supply Company Ms. Wieta Schfer Mr. Pasma Nieuwlandseweg 42PO BOX 3053 NL 3824 AMERSFORTNL - 3760 DB SOEST Tel : +31 33 46 25 843Tel: +31 35 60 944 11Fax: +31 35 60 944 22E-mail: *@Remu.nl

http://www.Remu.nl

This case study was prepared by Energie-Cits in co-operation with the electricity supply companyREMU and the City of Amersfoort. It received funding from the ALTENER Programme of DGXVII ofthe European Commission


5/8

1 MW decentralized and building

integrated PV system in a newhousing area of Amersfoort

General information

Location: Amersfoort, the NetherlandsSunshine hours (yearly average): 1 477hours per year, 4,05 hours per dayType of project: Mostly residentialbuildings, some public facilities (a sportscentre, a school and a kindergarten)Type of application: BIPVTime for design process: Different fordifferent housing sections

Time for construction: Different for differenthousing sections, from 1997 to 1999Realization: 1999DescriptionAim of the project is the full-s

cale demonstration of a 1 MW PV system inan urbanised area through the realisation of500 PV houses grouped together in

Nieuwland, Amersfoorts new housing area.

In detail, the projects furthermore aims at:demonstration of the technological and

architectural potential of BIPV,reduced BIPV costs in terms of both modulecosts (economy of scale) and BOS-costs

(through optimised integration),enhanced system performance throughoptimised design and improved qualitycontrol and commissioning procedures,establishment of an infrastructure for futureco-operation between building companies,utilities, town planners and PV industry,essential for maturing BIPV technology,a contribution to the confidence of localauthorities as well as project developers,architects and building industry of quality

aspects of PV.

The 1 MW project has successfully

demonstrated the feasibility of theimplementation of large scale, buildingintegrated PV systems on a district level.We learned important lessons on atechnical and organisational level to

enhance the system performance of BIPV:

Let performance guarantees be part of thecontractual agreement with the pvsubcontractor (rather than the price per

kWp, the price is directly related to kWh);A modular design concept (here one house

one inverter) features lower costs (largeamounts of standardised flexible units,

reduced cabling costs, low grid connectioncosts and low costs of spare parts);Type tests prove to be necessary due to

innovative pv techniques and new productsbeing applied (as PV becomes moremainstream, and components are welltested, such type tests can be omitted);


6/8

The design review is considered to be a

preparatory step for the building inspectionand commissioning (we believe this will

remain an important element of qualitycontrol programmes of future PV projects).In general, we feel that intermediate

inspections, during design and installation,are and will remain a necessary part of anybuilding process, regardless a new

technology is being used, or not. Testing

before commissioning has proven to beessential: various faults by the PV installerswere detected and corrected before

commissioning could proceed.As far as organisational aspects areconcerned, PV being realised by theproperty developer, seem to run moresmoothly than PV being organised by anenergy company. The latter is not used tothe conventional building process.Communication is essential in all phase ofthe design process.Although REMU has put a considerableamount of energy into informing the

occupants, it was apparently not enough to

prevent a lot of questions. PV is still not acommon phenomenon in the Netherlands.There is still a lot of Public Relations to do.The 1 MW project has increased theacceptance of building integrated PV, notonly by the general public but also byprofessional parties like city developers,property developers, architects and buildingcompanies. The project has also persuadedproperty developers and architects topromote PV as a building component thatcan give a house an aesthetic surplus

value. Some of the architects have alreadyapplied PV in other projects at their owninitiative.

System characteristicsPV system power: 1 323 kWp on 500houses, monitoring data concern 44 houses

with 2,57 kW utility-interactiveType of building integration: roof-integrated

Type of cell technology: multi-crystallineModule dimensions: 95 watts (27),manufacturer: Shell Solar

Inverter: central 2500 watts (one perhouse), inverter manufacturer: Mastervolt


7/8

Unforeseen Issues: In the planning stage a

maximum of 5% loss due to shading andnon-optimal orientation was allowed, with a

tilt angle between 20 and 50 degrees. With

the design as built (with a tilt angle of 70

degrees) the loss is estimated to be 16%.Project cost breakdown

Initial budget based on 1,0 MW: 8,6million (because of the enthusiasm of thearchitects who all wanted to participate ithas become 1,3 MW).

PV systems, turnkey delivery: 7 441 542Monitoring system: 152 016Grid interfacing equipment: 99 378Building construction materials: 451 965Installation: 306 302Project management and engineering: 776 418Total project costs: 9 227 621

In the present project the PV electricity costprice is 1,15/kWh if all costs for project

management, design, monitoring evaluation

and dissemination are included.Performance characteristics

The one house one inverter concept hasproven to be successful. The flexibleSunmaster 2500 inverter has eventually

resulted in almost 400 well-functioning PVsystems. I must be noted that on averagethe nominal inverter power is unnecessarilylarge with respect to the PV power;although no substantial negative effects onthe yield has been observed, system price

might have been still lower. The inverterefficiency measured at 10 % load was 88%,whereas it was designed to be 91%.After a number of technical problems in thepre-commissioning phases had been

resolved (see chapter 3), the performanceof the systems has proven to be inaccordance with expectations. The absoluteyield figures indicate, however, that the

houses with steep roofs performsubstantially less than the roofs with a

small tilt angle. From an energetic point ofview, such designs should have been

avoided, moreover since in the initialrequirements for design a maximumdeviation of 5 % the maximum attainableyield was allowed (see Annex V). On the

other hand, the more vertical applicationsincrease the visibility of and the attentionfor PV, which is experienced as positive byprofessionals and public. In Nieuwland agood trade-off has been made between thedirect technical revenues the kWhs - andthose from publicity. Monitoring of allhouses is still running and within the next


8/8

it will year generate valuable statisticalinformation on the performance of thesystems.In general the project has been successful

in a sense that property developers andarchitects have become convinced that PVis a building component that can give a

house an aesthetic surplus value. Some ofthem have already applied PV in otherprojects at their own initiative. A largeinterest for Nieuwland is shown by visitorsand the professional press, both nationaland international.Electricity generated: 1681 kWh from 1January 2000 to 31 December 2000System availability: 100 %

Incidents or Outages: 0Project team

Utility REMU is initiator and contractor ofother parties. REMU, Ecofys and Novemhave regular meetings for overall projectmanagement. REMU manages business withPV-suppliers, architects and building

contractors. PV manufactures: Shell Solar,BP Solar, BRAAS (roofing company thatuses Sh

ell Solar laminates), Colt

1 MW in Amersfoort

Documents

Transcript of 1 MW in Amersfoort