http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Finland%E2%80%99s+largest+office+complex+utilising+solar+energy+to+be+erected+in+Vantaa/1135233270944

Finland’s largest office complex utilising solar energy to be erected in Vantaa

Finland’s largest office complex utilising solar energy to be erected in Vantaa
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Plans have been drawn to construct a chain of four office buildings, with solar panels covering the south-facing walls of the complex, in the vicinity of the Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport.
This way some of the energy needed by the complex will be generated on the spot without putting a strain on the environment.
The project is the largest of its kind in Finland, possibly even in the entire Nordic region.
Similar kinds of solar panel buildings are found at least in Northern Germany.
The Econia Business Park, which will make up a section of the Aviapolis office block cluster near the airport, will be erected by the construction firm Rakennusosakeyhtiö Hartela for developers Julius Tallberg Real Estate Corporation. The complex looks set to be completed in stages by the year 2012.
The office complex has been designed by CEJ Architects, who have developed the concept in cooperation with Hartela.

"We aim to follow the future trends. The price of electricity is definitely going to rise", explains managing director Martti Leisti of Julius Tallberg Real Estate Corporation.
Solar panels are still somewhat pricy and will increase the project outlay. The attraction is lower running costs in the form of a reduced electricity bill. Investment support is also available for eco-friendly solar energy projects.
In the near future the price of solar panels is also expected to come down, as new manufacturers keep emerging. China, for one, has introduced new and less expensive manufacturing techniques.

The Lielahti Citymarket department store in the city of Tampere has experience from the use of solar panels since 2000. The store’s roof houses 330 square metres of solar panels, which can produce up to 39 kilowatts of electricity on a sunny summer day.
According to property manager Petri Salmijärvi, solar energy covered 1.62 percent of last year’s electricity bill.

There was significant fluctuation from one month to the next in the production of electricity by the solar panels. In the rainy December the panels turned out a mere 36 kilowatt-hours of electricity. At the opposite end of the spectrum was the month of June with a respectable 5,230-kilowatt-hour output of electricity.
In Helsinki’s Viikki district there is a residential block of flats, the balcony balustrades of which have been covered with solar panels.
These panels produce enough electrical energy to cover half of the building’s hot tap water needs and 13 percent of the annual heating costs.
A few row houses and detached houses, as well as multiple holiday homes, also utilise smaller solar panels in the Greater Helsinki area.

As yet, the Vantaa project is still on the drawing board, and no details are available of the quantity of energy that could be produced.
Much will depend on how densely the panels are installed on the south-facing walls of the 30,000 square-metre complex.