Zero emission living area
The Skaftkärr project strives for a total elimination of carbon dioxide emissions from the area's residential housing.
COSY. An energy efficient residential area will be developed in Porvoo. (Photo: SITRA)
The objective of the Skaftkärr project is to develop an energy efficient, safe, personal and cosy area that provides different sorts of living alternatives. The area is 400 hectares and will provide housing for at least 6,000 inhabitants. The area will be designed and developed as a pilot project of national importance.
Construction, traffic arrangements, services, and energy
The aim is to develop the area called Skafkärr into a pleasant and energy-efficient area. The development work will focus in particular on construction, traffic arrangements, and the availability of services and on energy consumption, while not forgetting green areas. The houses, services, living environment, traffic arrangements and waste management for the area will be planned so that they consume as little energy as possible. The goal is to totally eliminate the carbon dioxide emissions from residential houses.
Real life experiments
The Skaftkärr project will develop a planning process that better takes energy-efficiency into account, develop business models for municipal energy companies, and develop so-called LivingLab activities. A living lab is defined as a research project integrating a user centred multidisciplinary research approach and a user community where innovation is driven by real life experiments.
House-specific energy solutions
Solutions pertaining to the Skaftkärr area’s heating and electricity production will be considered during the planning stage. In addition to district heating, various local and house-specific opportunities for producing energy will be taken into account, including solar energy, geothermal energy, wind power and bioenergy.
Stakeholders cooperating
The planning and innovation work taking place in the Skaftkärr project, will be implemented through wide-ranging cooperation between the authorities, energy producers, energy recovery developers, construction companies, equipment manufacturers and other companies, as well as future residents. In addition to Porvoon Energia, other energy producers will also participate in developing alternative energy solutions, including providers of geothermal energy, solar energy, small wind power plants and other energy sources.
The project participants are Sitra, the City of Porvoo, Porvoon Energia Oy and Kehitysyhtiö Posintra Oy, which is in charge of coordinating the project. The planning and innovation process is done in close collaboration with authorities, energy companies, developers of energy use, contractors, and the future inhabitants.
Low energy and passive houses
The energy part of the project focuses on developing business models that supports the building of low energy buildings and passive houses. With the business models of today, it is difficult to provide low energy areas with district heating. The energy-saving possibilities provided by the latest knowledge and technology, will be used in the construction work carried out by the project. The energy consumption of houses can be considerably reduced by various means including thermal insulation, air-tightness and heat recovery. The heating requirements of the houses can be totally covered by the thermal energy emitted by people, equipment and the sun.
New business logic
The business logic of energy companies will change if different energy-efficient solutions are required at the town planning stage when new areas are built. New service business models are created for energy companies as part of the Skaftkärr project to support energy-saving building. In addition to Porvoon Energia, other companies are also participating in the development of alternative energy solutions for the Skaftkärr area. These include suppliers of thermal energy and solar energy equipment, small wind power stations and alternative fuels.
Project management and financing
The project is financed by Sitra, the Finnish innovation fund, the city of Porvoo and the local energy utility Porvoon Energia Oy. The regional development company Posintra Oy coordinates the project.
A framework is built for a Living Lab covering the whole residential area with the focus on the development of energy efficiency. The Living Lab will be used for HVAC product development, development of service strategies in the community, development of service concept for the energy utility, providing the R&D world with energy consumption data. All of these developments processes are supposed to work with the end users.
Further reading:
Sitra: New energy-efficient suburb to be built in Porvoo
The Skaftkärr pilot project is part of the five-year Energy Programme initiated by Sitra. The goal of the programme is to identify practical measures for improving energy efficiency. The intention is to transfer and use the experiences and results obtained by the project in other Finnish housing projects.
The Skaftkärr pilot project will develop the concept of an energy-oriented town plan. This means new types of planning models applicable to other parts of Finland as well. With them, energy planning and improvement of energy efficiency can in the future be integrated as a central element of the planning of housing estates.
Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund is an independent public fund, which under the supervision of the Finnish Parliament, promotes the welfare of Finnish society. Sitra’s responsibilities are regulated by law.
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