The energy poles will be used for heating and cooling in the upcoming ‘Elemental Skanste’ office building project in the Skanste district, inform the representatives of the developer ‘Kapitel’.
Ground source heat pumps integrated into the stacks will be able to produce up to 72% of the building’s thermal energy, thus reducing heating costs by up to 45%, which will effectively reduce the monthly energy bill by 35 cents per square meter .
Energy piles are a type of geothermal heat pump technology that saves energy for heating and cooling buildings. Climatic temperature fluctuations affect only the top 1.5-meter layer of soil. Below this depth, the soil maintains a constant temperature, which is usually around +12 degrees. Closed geothermal loops use this temperature to heat cold water or cool hot water by pumping a liquid solution through the pipes. Thus, as the fluid circulates through the heaps, it naturally cools or warms depending on the season.
Unlike vertical stacks, this technology does not take up too much space and there is no need to install powerful AC systems. Because the energy pile heating process is considered renewable energy, heating costs become much lower than they would be with other heating solutions.
“Elemental Skanste” sales director Imants Krēsliņš says that up to 72% of the thermal energy required for the building can be produced in energy stacks, so only 28% may need to be supplied with a centralized heat supply. Therefore, during the heating season, it will significantly reduce your annual heating costs. For example, the heat tariff of ‘Rīga svarta’ is currently 170.59 euros per megawatt hour, but ‘Elemental Skanste’ could offer at least a 45% discount, resulting in a heat price of 83.79 euros per megawatt hour, which is a monthly discount of 0.35 euros per square meter or almost half of the original cost.
This is a relatively new technology, although it has been used in the Baltics since 2015. Currently, 10 office buildings use this solution in Estonia, but “Elemental Skanste” will be the first in Latvia.
“Elemental Skanste” is a project of two interconnected 10-storey buildings, which is expected to be completed in autumn 2023 and whose total area is 33,500 square meters, of which 21,000 square meters are class A office space. office space, a congress center, a co-creation area, a storage room for 400 bicycles, showers, changing rooms and various catering and service areas are also planned. Approximately 500 parking spaces will be built next to the building, including 200 parking spaces on the floors below the buildings, and 40 charging stations for electric cars.
Last September “Kapitel” and the construction company “Merks” signed a contract worth almost 49 million euros for the construction of the “Elemental Skanste” office building. The total investment of “Kapitel” in this project will reach approximately 60 million euros.
“Kapitel” is one of the largest real estate companies in the Baltics, developing and operating shopping centres, hotels and office buildings. The group’s real estate portfolio includes over 244,000 m2 of rented premises. The company owns four office buildings (“Delta Plaza” and “Sõpruse Ärimaja” in Tallinn, “Narbuto 5” in Vilnius and “IP Pavlova 5” in Prague) and four shopping malls (“Spice” and “Spice Home” in Riga , “Panorama” in Vilnius and “Viru Keskus” in Tallinn).
The company owns “Nordic Hotel Forum” (operated by “Nordic Hotels”), which is co-owner of “Tallink City” hotel operated by “Tallink Hotels”. The company also owns 50% shares of “Nordassets OÜ”, which owns two logistics centers on the Tallinn ring road.
