The buildings of the future will include intelligent and efficient energy storage functions and thus make a substantial contribution to sustainable energy use. The Energetikum, located in Pinkafeld, Austria, offers the required research infrastructure to push this development forward.
A Living Lab for more efficient building design in Austria
- 01 July 2021
The interdisciplinary Living Lab enables researchers to examine all individual technologies in real life operating conditions and across systems, reflecting actual user behaviour.
The buildings of the future will take on a special role as an energy provider and as place to store energy. However, further development of such regenerative energy systems first require the development of intelligent networks to connect the energy producer/provider with the user, along with innovative storage technologies.
This is where the Energetikum comes in. As a so-called living lab, research is conducted in real-time while the building is used as everyday office space. While individuals are hard at work, the Energetikum is working to develop and test such individual technologies as solar and photovoltaic panels, heat pump systems, storage technologies, and inter-system control strategies – all while taking into consideration real user behaviour.
More than just an office space
Before buildings can take on the role of providing short and long-term storage of wind and solar power, researchers must first develop regenerative energy systems with intelligent connections between energy supply, storage and distribution. One promising development is a synchronised system capable of turning the building itself into an energy storage facility.
The challenge to building such a synchronised system is that it requires in-depth knowledge about the dynamic behaviour of thermally active building components like heat pumps, geothermal exchange systems, solar hybrid collectors, and fuel cells, among others. Understanding these technologies individually, however, is not enough. One must also know how they interact with each other, with the building and with its occupants.
The Living Lab solution
Prior to the Energetikum project, such information was not easily available. Due to a lack of suitable test buildings, researchers were limited to carrying out simulation calculations and single technology tests under laboratory conditions – neither of which provided observation of real user behaviour, a key element in the equation.
The EU-funded Energetikum project bridged this research gap by building an interdisciplinary Living Lab that serves both as a fully functional work space and as high-tech energy lab. Here, researchers can develop and test alternative energy supply systems, storage technologies and control strategies on a one-to-one scale while looking at the very important factor of real user behaviour.
The Energetikum enables individual technologies and system-wide control energy strategies to be developed while taking into account real user behaviour. One unique feature of the centre is its extensive hydraulic installations, which provide necessary flexibility to develop system-wide section storage concepts – a prerequisite for validating and developing building and installation simulation models. Other features include a laboratory for energy storage systems based on hydrogen, the latest air-conditioning systems and a lab dedicated to the simulation of management issues.
An award-winning concept
The facility was built in just one year. Since April 2015, it has served as the office space for Forschung Burgenland’s research team. In addition, numerous other research projects from various sectors and from around Europe have made use of the Energetikum. In 2015, it was awarded the Klimaaktive Bronze Award in recognition of being an energy efficient building
Total investment and EU funding
Total investment for the project “Research Center Energetikum – Living Lab” is EUR 2 340 000, with the EU’s European Regional Development Fund contributing EUR 1 438 000 through the “Investments in Growth and Employment Austria” Operational Programme for the 2014-2020 programming period.