The Billa Supermarket in Klosterneuburg, Austria is the first supermarket in Europe to be awarded EU Green Building Certificate.

This visit was part of the Renewable Energy Research Trip to Austria that took place in November 2011.

GreenBuilding is a voluntary programme which was initiated by the European Commission in 2005. The programme intends to raise awareness and trigger additional investments in energy efficiency and renewable energies among owners of non-residential buildings and to give advice and public recognition to those, who are ready to implement ambitious measures in their buildings, resulting in substantial energy savings. These savings not only contribute to the European fight against climate change, but make also good business sense as it will reduce energy costs.

Energy Concept

1. Use of low energy refrigeration

• Generous evaporator surfaces

• Specially designed air duct

• Use of energy-saving air circulation fans – consumption per fan: 7-9 W

• Electronic regulation of the panel heaters

 

2. Refrigeration systems, condensers and heating systems

• Complete heat recovery from refrigerators is used to heat the supermarket

• Additional heat energy during the cold season can be extracted by the partial use of the refrigeration system as a heat pump

• Special electronic control of the refrigeration systems, reacting to the surrounding temperatures

• Use of special electronic system for cooling and heating system

3. Use of energy saving plant

• Short payback periods (4.5 years)

• Reduction of operational and connection costs

• Constant control of the cooling temperatures

• Extended service life of the compressor by minimizing the frequency of switching

• No building work for heating systems required

 

Fact sheet

Sales area: 600 m²

Storage and ancillary area: 200 m²

Year of construction: 2007

Wall construction: Reinforced concrete 20 cm + Rock wool 16 cm + OSB 2.6 cm

U-value External walls: 0,23 W/m²K

U-value Windows: Glass 1,1 W/m²K, Incl. profile: 1.8 W / m² K, Total construction: u = 1.31 W / m² K

Roof construction: 1.8 mm SARNAFIL roof membrane, EPS 20 cm, PAE film LD 920 trapezoidal sheet

U-value Roof: 0,18 W/m²K

 

 

Who can participate in GreenBuilding?

• Owners of non-residential buildings; they can become GreenBuilding Partner.

• Businesses from the building sector, contributing to energy efficiency in the non-residential building sector with their products or services; they can become GreenBuilding Endorser.

 

How to become GreenBuilding Partner

For becoming GreenBuilding Partner, you need to implement energy efficiency measures in your building(s):

• Refurbishment of existing non-residential building(s): primary energy consumption reduced by at least 25% (if economically viable), total or related to the end-use or subsystem, which is being modernised.

• New non-residential building(s): primary energy consumption 25% below building standard (if economically viable) or below the consumption of “conventional” buildings presently constructed.

• Building(s) already renovated or refurbished (after 01.01.2000): primary energy consumption reduced by at least 25% or the building(s) consume 25% less energy than required by the national building standard in force at that time.

 

There are three steps in becoming a GreenBuilding Partner:

1. Performing an Energy Audit

2. Development and submission of an Action-Plan based on the audit, describing the measures to be performed

3. Reporting about the success of the Action-Plan implementation

 

Visit the The European GreenBuilding Programme Website for more information.

 

Isabel Barros