Solar Airconditioning for European Football Association

Minergie-Eco administrative building for European football’s governing body

Built on the principle of sustainable and energy-efficient construction followed by the use of as much renewable energy as possible to meet remaining energy requirements, the new administrative building for the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) in Nyon on the shores of Lake Geneva sets new standards. Designed by BASSICARELLA ARCHITECTES, the circular building stands out not just thanks to the extremely well-balanced main body of the structure, which is integrated into the surrounding landscape, but also as a result of a renewable energy concept that combines geothermal and solar thermal energy with photovoltaics. As a unique feature, an absorption refrigerator is used to transform excess solar heat into cooling energy for the building’s temperature control system.

In addition to its involvement in social issues, European football’s governing body also wants to make a commitment to climate and environmental protection. Among other measures, the CO₂ generated by staff when they travel is offset by the Australian company Climate Friendly by means of internationally recognised certificates for renewable energy. For the WWF’s global “Earth Hour” campaign in March 2010, the organisation turned off its lights in Nyon, Switzerland, for an hour to show its support for the issues of climate protection.

Sustainable, environmentally friendly, energy-efficient

The association is also setting new benchmarks with the construction of its new administrative building not far from its current headquarters in Nyon on the shores of Lake Geneva. The building, designed in the shape of a cylinder by Geneva-based architects BASSICARELLA ARCHITECTES, integrates harmoniously into the surrounding parkland in spite of its UFO-like architecture. In addition to the circular form of the building with its overhanging ring-shaped canopies, which have been calculated based on their orientation and the position of the sun in summer, the building – which has been designed and certified to the Swiss Minergie-Eco standard – also has a whole host of special energy-saving features. For instance, the façade is made from curved triple-glazed panes of glass, which reduces energy loss considerably while at the same time providing an enormous boost to thermal comfort in the window areas. The building is heated and cooled using a hybrid system consisting of a geothermal heat pump (35 downhole heat exchangers each at a depth of 200 metres) and solar thermal energy system, the excess heat from which is transformed by a Yazaki absorption refrigerator into cooling energy to cool the offices in summer.

The collector array on top of the flat roof of the ring-shaped building measures approximately 110 square metres and generates a maximum of 55 kW at flow temperatures of up to 95°C. The solar heat generated is used primarily to heat drinking water and secondarily for heating purposes. In summer and in transitional periods, when the heating can be switched off, the excess solar energy is used for cooling by means of the absorption refrigerator. The model WFC SC 10 Yazaki absorber generates approximately 30 kW of cooling energy at a hot water flow temperature of 88°C. The water is cooled to 7°C and stored temporarily in a cold water reservoir with a capacity of 3000 litres. If a greater cooling capacity is required, the cooling energy is generated by a hydraulically reversible model 30 HXC 100 Carrier heat pump. The refrigerating plant is regulated in such a way that the use of cooling energy generated from solar energy is prioritised at all times. Heat and cooling energy are distributed around the building by means of a four-conductor system, which supplies hot or cold water to the fan convector heaters (350 fan coils) located inside the false floor in front of the façades.

In addition to the 90 vacuum tube collectors, around 200 square metres of photovoltaic panels with an output of 30 kW are also mounted on the building’s flat roof. These provide sufficient power to cover the building’s electrical base load.

The contract for the overall project – the geothermal heat pump, the solar thermal energy system, the solar absorption refrigerator, the fan convector heaters (Carrier 42 BJ) and the climatic cabinets (Stulz) was awarded to Walter Meier (Klima Schweiz) AG, Schwerzenbach. Antoine Guigue, Project Manager for Walter Meier in Geneva, stresses in this regard the importance of an integrated approach to the solution that combines the conventional generation of cooling energy with the use of solar power: “Systems like this must come from a single source, i.e. the solar thermal energy system, the absorber, the geothermal heat pump, the buffer reservoir, the hydraulics and – most importantly – the control system. Only with this integrated approach can such systems be operated efficiently and therefore cost-effectively.”

Information for the editorial team

Yazaki does not operate as a vendor in Germany, Austria or Switzerland. The companies listed below are responsible for distribution.

Please direct any queries regarding absorption refrigerators to:

Walter Meier (Klima Schweiz) AG

Mr Rémy Pittet

 E-mail: remy.pittet(at)waltermeier.com

 Internet: www.waltermeier.com

GasKlima GmbH

Mr Karl-Heinz Bodenschatz

 E-mail: info(at)gasklima.de

 Internet: www.gasklima.de

Johnson Controls Germany

Mr Ivo Eiermann

 E-mail: ivo.eiermann(at)jci.com

 Internet: www.johnsoncontrols.com

Johnson Controls Austria

Mr Wolfgang Kummer

 E-mail: josef.kummer(at)jci.com

 Internet: www.johnsoncontrols.at/publish/at/de.html

Editorial note:

The Union of European Football Associations places great importance on being quoted in its unabbreviated form; the abbreviation (UEFA) may not be used (according to its own information it is a “registered trademark”).

Captions

Fig. 1

The new administrative building for the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) in Nyon on the shores of Lake Geneva (BASSICARELLA ARCHITECTES). The sunshade is made from prefabricated concrete elements, the depth of which vary from 1.80 to 3.00 metres depending on their orientation

Fig. 2

Inner courtyard of the new administrative building in Nyon. With an area of 6,000 m2 spread across four floors, it provides space for 250 employees

Fig. 3

90 Xinox vacuum tube collectors are installed on the building’s roof. They have a maximum heat output of 55 kW

Fig. 4

Excess heat from the solar thermal energy system is transformed into cooling energy by the WFC SC 30 Yazaki absorption refrigerator. The water heated using solar energy is primarily used to heat drinking water and for room heating.

All figures Yazaki