The Solar Settlement at Schlierberg (german: Solarsiedlung am Schlierberg) is a 59-home
PlusEnergy housing community in
Freiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...
, Germany. Solar architect
Rolf Disch
Rolf Disch is a German architect, solar energy pioneer and environmental activist. Born in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, Disch has dedicated particular focus to regional renewable and sustainable energy.
As head of his own architecture firm, ...
wanted to apply his
PlusEnergy concept, created originally with his
Heliotrope home, to mass residential production. The residential complex won such awards as House of the Year (2002), Residential PV solar integration award (2002), and "Germany's most beautiful housing community" (2006).
It is one of the first housing communities in the world
in which all the homes produce a positive energy balance
and which is emissions-free and neutral.
Location
The Solar Settlement at Schlierberg is a 59-home
PlusEnergy housing community at Elly-Heuss-Knapp-Strasse/ Rosa-Luxemburg-Strasse adjacent to the
Vauban quarter about 3 km from
Freiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...
city centre in South West Germany. Five rows of terraced houses with a Southern orientation are grouped to the left and right of a central access road, housing about 170 residents.
Buildings
Construction began 1999 and the settlement was completed in 2006.
The houses contain 2-3 floors and were built with ecological building materials via wooden
post-and-beam construction from regional forests and prefabricated individual modules, PVC-free, and environmentally friendly insulation materials.
Apartment sizes are from 81 to 210 m
2 and are rental and owner-occupied. An underground parking lot keeps the street car free.
Energy
The houses are oriented to the South for optimal passive and active use of solar energy.
Thermal insulation is used according to
passive house
"Passive house" (german: Passivhaus) is a voluntary standard for energy efficiency in a building, which reduces the building's ecological footprint. It results in ultra-low energy buildings that require little energy for space heating or coo ...
standard, including glazing of the main facades with a
U-value
In the context of construction, the R-value is a measure of how well a two-dimensional barrier, such as a layer of insulation, a window or a complete wall or ceiling, resists the conductive flow of heat. R-value is the temperature difference pe ...
of 0.5, resulting in a heat requirement of only 11-14 kilowatt hours per m
2 and year, which as of 2012 was 200 € (including maintenance costs) per year.
Each house has a decentralized ventilation system with heat recovery.
The settlement is connected to a local heating network.
The south facing roofs are covered with photovoltaic modules with a generation potential of 445 kWp of the entire site.
As of 2022, it is the largest residential roof-integrated photovoltaic system.
PlusEnergy is a concept developed by Rolf Disch denoting a "structure's extreme energy efficiency so that it holds a positive energy balance", producing more energy than it uses. In 1994, Disch had created the first PlusEnergy house in the world with the completion of his private residence, the
Heliotrope. According to Disch "PlusEnergy is a fundamental environmental imperative".
Awards
The settlement and the PlusEnergy house concept won the following prizes:
* 1999, 1st prize "Innovation Award " of the German magazine Immobilien Manager
* 2000, 1st prize "Holzkreativpreis" of BUND e.V.
* 2001 / 2002, 1st prize "Architecture prize for single-family houses" from
Stern (magazine)
* 2001, 2nd prize "Photovoltaic Architecture Prize Baden- Württemberg".
*
European Solar Prize
{{notability, date=February 2018
The European Solar Prizes are a series of awards which have been given annually since 1994 by the European Association for Renewable Energy (EUROSOLAR) located in Bonn, Germany. The prizes are awarded to individu ...
from Eurosolar e.V. for Rolf Disch s commitment
See also
*
Sustainable architecture
*
Energy-plus-house
An energy-plus building (also called: plus-energy house, efficiency-plus house) produces more energy from renewable energy sources, over the course of a year, than it imports from external sources. This is achieved using a combination of micr ...
*
Passive solar design
In passive solar building design, windows, walls, and floors are made to collect, store, reflect, and distribute solar energy, in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. This is called passive solar design because, unl ...
*
Green building
Green building (also known as green construction or sustainable building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from planni ...
*
Zero-energy building
A Zero Energy Building (ZEB), also known as a Net Zero Energy (NZE) building, is a building with net zero energy consumption, meaning the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is equal to the amount of renewable energy ...
References
{{reflist
External links
Rolf Disch Solar Architecture PlusEnergySolar Settlement and Sun Ship Video
Buildings and structures in Freiburg im Breisgau
Solar architecture
Solar design
Sustainable building
Housing in Germany
Solar energy in Germany