Discover more about our demo site in Madrid (Spain)

Interview to Diego Romera from EMVS, demo site owner of our site in Madrid, Spain.

Demo site ID:

Location: Madrid, Spain
Type of building: (Multi Family Residential Building, 1072 m2, 9 Apartments + 2 Commercial Premises)
Climate: Mediterranean
Technologies and partners involved in this demo site: Reversible Heat Pump (BDR), Sola PV-T (Dual Sun), Thermal Storage (Ratiotherm)
Date of the demo site visit: 28^thFebruary 2019

Presentation of the demo site:

The building was built in 1948 and is located in the city centre of Madrid, in the residential district of Lavapies, specifically in Tres Peces 9 Street.
It is a multi-family residential building, rectangular shaped, with south oriented main façade. The other three orientations (two sides and the back) consists on dividing walls in contact with other buildings. A central courtyard serves with natural lighting and ventilation to the interior-side rooms of the building. It also accommodates the staircase and the lift hole.
The building has two commercial premises, one interior dwelling and several common rooms on the ground floor, and eight dwellings on the rest of the floors above ground at a rate of two per floor (within four floors).
The building belongs entirely to EMVS (partner of the SunHorizon project) and it is being rented to people with social and economic difficulties.
An unfavourable ITE (Technical Building Inspection) report was carried out requiring immediate reparation of several technical aspects. For this reason, it is intended to make a refurbishment, out of Sun Horizon Project, of structure, envelope, and accessibility.
The existing HVAC systems consists of individual gas boilers that covers the needs of heating and DHW.
At the end of February 2019, was organised a technical meeting and a visit onsite. The building was examined, and was stablished the basis for further technical developments.

What are the energy challenges of this demo site?

With the renovation of the envelope, it is intended to reduce 70% the energy demand of the heating, and with SunHorizon project, thanks to the centralization and the high efficiency of the heat pumps coupled with solar technology, reduce the energy consumption to minimum levels.

Do you see any policy obstacles referred to SunHorizon technologies application, specifically related to the local/national regulations where the demo site is located and, more in general, at EU level?  

It has been approved the new law in Spain that regulates the energy self-consumption. This will enhance PV installations. 
At the moment, any obstacles have not been identified.

What is your motivation to participate in the project and which is your role?

Spain is a country with a huge potential in terms of solar energy generation. An optimized coupling of this renewable technology with heat pump systems, could achieve very high energy efficiency and considerably reduce the levels of energy consumption. 

Due to this reason, SunHorizon project aims at serving as a replicable model for many other EMVS’ buildings in Madrid city centre with similar architectural characteristics and type of tenants, facing energy poverty.Which are the expected benefits your company aims to demonstrate in the SUNHORIZON project?

Which are the expected benefits your company aims to demonstrate in the SUNHORIZON project?

We expect to have buildings with very low energy consumption. 
In addition, the integration of SunHorizon technologies must assure an easy and cheap operation and maintenance.

Pictures from the demo site visit