Astrid Schneider – Solar Architecture – Design, research & communication

Solarspeicher Nechlin, Germany

The 'Energiespeicher' is a former granary, located in eastern Germany in a small village called 'Nechlin'. The building was in a bad condition when it was bought. Today it is completely renovated and equipped with an integrated Photovoltaic roof and façade system. The owners and planners had the ambition, to revitalize the building with a new function as solar energy generator and to modernize the historic structure with Photovoltaics, without disturbing the historic face of the building. The uninsulated former granary is now not only used as a restaurant "Zum Speicher" and a multifunctional convention hall, but as well as a network point and center for a local district heating and renewable electricity system. In it's cellar there are combined heat and power stations fired with biofuel. The ‘Energiespeicher’ and it’s power plants have now been integrated into an bigger local heating system with solar thermal collectors and a wood pellets heating system to supply renewable heat to the whole village of Nechlin. In the upper floor the DC-lines from the BIPV-installations of three neighboring houses are collected. The inverters are located centrally, to be able to supply all the electricity via one point to the public grid. The electricity network, which is distributing the electricity from the CHP-plants, can work autonomously if needed. So the PV-plants could help to supply and maintain a local electricity network. However the normal use is to feed the electricity into the public grid, to refinance the PV-plants via the German feed in tariff. The PV-systems have been installed until end 2008.

Meanwhile the renewable energy systems in the village Nechlin have been widely expanded inclunding a new energy knot, a district heating system connecting the whole village, solar thermal systems and: with a large heat storage, using wind power of the nearby wind field.