Via EUREC Members, CENER /  Picture: Cross section of the residential area with the geothermal boreholes and BIPV roofs

Author: Florencio Manteca, Director of the Energy in Buildings Department

EUREC member, the National Renewable Energy Center of Spain, CENER, is currently working on the elaboration of the energy concept and technical specifications of a new urban development, called Nivalis Solar. CENER’s ambitious goal with Nivalis Solar is to design a carbon neutral and 100% renewable energy supplied solar city, the first of its kind in Europe.

Nivalis is located in the south of Spain and will include more than 2.000 new low-energy dwellings, leisure and sport centers, business zones with offices buildings, hotels and its own school. A conventional project of this magnitude would approximately emit 13,000 tons of CO2 per year due to the energy used to provide the basic services of residential and tertiary buildings, mobility and public lighting. However, as an ecological and intelligent city, Nivalis has set the overall aim of offsetting its environmental impact by establishing a zero emissions goal.

Consequently, Nivalis’ energy plan calls for self-sufficiency based on local and on-site renewable energy sources, mainly photovoltaics for self-consumption, and district scale HVAC systems such as ground source heat pump (GSHP), and also thermal energy storage.

In addition, all the transport and mobility solutions will be zero emissions as well. With the logical exceptions of emergency vehicles, it will be forbidden to drive any vehicle which emits CO2. There will be a solar parking before the main entrance of Nivalis, and citizens or visitors with polluting cars will have to park there and to take a zero emissions vehicle available (e-car sharing, bicycles, e-scooters …) to reach their final destination at Nivalis.

The urbanisation works will start in winter 2020 and the first dwellings will be delivered by summer 2022.