L-R: Paul Weis, Managing Director of LuxEnergie; Matteo Perino, General Manager at Nhood Luxembourg; John Sliepen, head of the technical-commercial service at LuxEnergie;
Credit: LuxEnergie / Nhood
LuxEnergie and the Auchan Kirchberg Shopping Center have renewed their partnership for 20 years and commited themselves to 100% carbon-neutral energy production.
Since the installation of Auchan in Luxembourg-Kirchberg in 1996, the LuxEnergie company has been producing and supplying heat, cold and emergency power on site for the "Stadtteilzentrum Kirchberg", including the Auchan hypermarket, the shopping centre, the Joseph Bech office complex occupied by the European Commission, as well as the Kubik building.
Designed in 1995, this power plant operating with fossil fuels was intended to provide the building complex with total operational autonomy to overcome any possible risk of a break in the supply of energy and to limit the development of the public networks present at the time on the plateau.
Committed to a sustainable development and environmental impact limitation approach, the companies LuxEnergie and Nhood (appointed by all the owners of the site), supported by the design offices Luxconsult and Felgen and the consultancy firm Arendt & Medernach, have renewed their collaboration for the next 20 years on the basis of replacing the fuel-gas cogeneration power plant with a power plant using air-to-water heat pumps using CO2 technology (a first in Luxembourg), powered by electricity from 100% renewable sources.
They are thus aiming for a completely carbon-neutral energy supply for the complex, i.e. an annual saving of around 2,500 tonnes of CO2 and a reduction of around 45% in energy expenditure. This large-scale project represents an investment of more than €7 million (including 75% allocated to Luxembourg companies) for €35 million of cumulative energy supply over time.
The current facilities will be cleaned up and dismantled for the second-hand market for reusable equipment or for the purpose of recycling raw materials for non-reusable equipment.
Based on this common experience of designing the renewal of the energy plant, the partners have also agreed to combine their know-how in order to conduct a proactive common energy purchasing policy.
Matteo Perino, General Manager of Nhood Luxembourg, emphasised: "We are committed to improving the environmental performance of the assets and neighbourhoods we manage or create. This project, carried out together, is fully in line with our desire to generate a triple positive impact in each of our actions: People-Planet-Prosperity".
