The Energy Globe World Awards (World Awards for Sustainability) have been awarded annually since 1999 to projects that have contributed to the "sustainable use of the earth's resources and the use of alternative energy sources." The winners in the categories "Earth", "Fire", "Water", "Air" and "Youth" are selected by an international jury, which includes, among others, members of the UN Industrial Development Committee, representatives of the World Bank and the European Council on Renewable energy. The initiative to establish the award belongs to the Austrian engineer and environmentalist Wolfgang Neumann. Today, the Energy Globe World Awards ranks among the most famous and prestigious environmental awards in the world. In past years, it was presented in Japan, Canada, in the plenary hall of the European Parliament in Brussels. Among the laureates are prominent public and cultural figures: Mikhail Gorbachev, Peter Falk, Robin Gibb (Bee Gees), Martin Sheen and Nigel Kennedy …
Every year, projects in the field of "non-traditional" energy and economical use of the Earth's resources, ecological architecture and design, and eco-education are submitted to the competition from many countries of the world. The first phase of the competition - the selection of about 50 national nominees - lasts about a year. At the final stage, the projects included in the number of applicants for the main, “world” prize of the award (three nominees in each of the five categories) are examined on the spot by representatives of the jury. The tradition of the award is to present the winners not according to the authors of projects or firms-developers of certain resource-saving technologies, but according to the countries participating in the competition. This year - in the order of the announcement of the winners at the awards ceremony - Russia (Earth), Canada (Fire), Nicaragua (Water), two winners in the Air category - Sweden and Switzerland, and Zambia (Youth) made the honorary list.
800 projects from 101 countries of the world took part in the 2010/11 competition. The projects and constructions of solar eco-houses "Solar" by the Vladivostok architect Pavel Kazantsev became the best in the "Earth" nomination, having received the "Energy Globe World Award 2010 - Earth". Among the 9 design works submitted by the author for the competition, the international jury singled out individual “solar houses” of mass construction: “Solar-5” and “Solar-K”, eco-module “Solar-5M”. Representatives of 50 countries of the world, federal ministers of Austria, public figures and politicians took part in the award ceremony on November 25, 2011, which was broadcast live from the Austrian city of Wels on European TV channels for more than three hours. Since the inception of the prize in 1999, Russia has been honored with such an award for the second time. The Grand Prix of the 2010/11 competition - the Golden "Energy Globe" - was selected from six winners based on the results of voting by the participants and guests of the ceremony. It was awarded to the developers of an eco-village in the Canadian province of Alberta.
Vladivostok and the southern part of the Far East as a whole is a region of Russia that is unique in terms of its solar resources. Thanks to the frosty but dry Siberian anticyclone and the southern latitude, the inhabitants of its cities and towns literally "bathe" in the warmth of the sun in winter. 1900 - 2400 hours of sunshine per year (10-12 cloudy days from November to March) are typical weather conditions for the region. Having deployed a horseshoe-shaped house in the plan “facing” to the south, “with its back” to the north, and covering the horseshoe with a stained-glass window, in Primorye conditions, we can save up to 80% on heating the house due to solar energy without collectors. But in such a "house behind glass" a person, of course, will not be very comfortable. More traditional methods - a winter garden on the south side of the house, ridge “solar windows”, an atrium - are inferior in efficiency to a house-aquarium. But the estimated contribution of such "passive" solar systems to heating a house at -15 ° C and a fresh northerly wind will be at least 50-60%.
"Short" rays of the sun, carrying heat in the infrared range invisible to the human eye, almost freely penetrate through the stained-glass window and heat the building structures: walls, columns, concrete floors, fireplaces. The thermal massifs heated by the sun give off all the heat to the house, since the way back through the glass for "long" heat rays from the wall heated by the sun and, of course, for warm air is already closed. When the thinnest metal coating or heat-reflecting film is applied to the glass surface, the radiant component of heat losses is almost completely directed back into the room. The energy-saving effect of the architecture of a solar eco-house is also made by the shape of the roof streamlined in the direction of the prevailing northern winds, the removal of canopies along the northern facade, and the placement of buffer spaces. Roof ridge windows provide insolation to the northern rooms in winter and intensive ventilation of the entire low-rise building in summer.
Calculations for working projects of wooden frame houses with solar heating for mass residential development "Solar-5", "Solar-K" and "Solar-S", as well as individual "Solar-Astra" (projects 2005 - 2010, construction of "Solar- Astra”c 2011) show that with a house area of 60 - 120 m2, passive and active solar systems will cover from 75 to 81% of the heating demand for the harsh Far Eastern winter. In other words, the architecture of such houses reduces emissions of flue gases and CO2 into the atmosphere by 75-81%, protecting the environment from pollution. The remaining 19% - 25% will be provided by electric heating of the hot water storage tank at the night rate, air or ground heat pumps.
The technology of continuous production of frame solar eco-houses was worked out in 2009 on the automated woodworking line of the Hundegger Company of the Center for Innovative Housing Construction of the Far Eastern Federal University during the development of the project of a small-sized tourist Eco-module Solar-5M. The production and assembly of the frame of one section of the module, the dimensions of which are adapted for transportation on a trailer to the installation site, takes no more than 12 hours. The test instance of the module is supposed to be used for research, demonstration and educational purposes. It is currently housed in a suburban camp at the Far Eastern Federal University and is to be equipped with active solar systems.
Elements of passive solar technologies for heating and cooling the building were used in working projects: the Parus supermarket (3500 m2 of retail space, completed in 2004-2005), private individual Solar-3 (1999-2000) and Solar-3M ("Solar-3M" - a house of 240 m2 of living space, construction from the end of 2010, it is planned to bring the provision of alternative energy sources to 100%), a tourist module "Solar-A" (implementation 2010) and a small-sized residential module for remote military units and border posts " Solar-5S "(project 2009-2010). Projects of multi-storey "solar" buildings of a residential complex with variable number of storeys of 16-22 floors with passive solar heating and hot water supply on the Shkot Peninsula in Vladivostok (2007) and an administrative "green" building in Alma-Ata (2009) remained only in sketches.
The reason for the high proportion of "paper" solar architecture is that the owner of the house receives the entire effect of savings, and that is why a solar house is not profitable for an investor and a builder of a mass "low-rise" building today. The cost of building a solar home is 10-30% higher than usual, and, taking into account today's prices for traditional energy sources, it pays for itself in about 5-10 years. A solar house is a “stayer”, it requires calculating the economics of construction for the future, and a traditional house with a roof “hut” beats it at a short distance (passed it and forgot)! In the absence of stimulating measures from the state, the construction of solar houses is still going on, mainly for individual private customers. And the mass low-rise buildings, despite the 100% readiness of solar projects for construction, are planned "for gas". That is why the author considers the awarding of the prize (without a cash equivalent this year!) As an advance payment to Russia to develop economic incentives for the introduction of existing domestic ones that meet quite a high world level, but still relatively expensive "green" architectural technologies.
About the author: Pavel Kazantsev - architect, professor of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, FEFU, Vladivostok
Developers of architecture, engineering systems and structures of Solar eco-houses:
- architecture of Eco-houses Solar - passive systems of solar heat supply and energy saving, working drawings: Pavel Kazantsev; engineering systems of alternative heating and power supply: Laboratory of Non-traditional Energy IPMT FEB RAS (Oleg Kovalev, Alexander Volkov); Energy Sun Company (General Director Sergey Novikov);
- calculation and design of structural systems: Alexander Zaitsev, Tatiana Slyusareva, Alexey Kazorin, sketches of structures: Pavel Kazantsev; general designer: design company M-ARK;
- development of the Solar-5M test module under the FEFU Innovative Housing Program, using the technologies of the FEFU Woodworking Center and the technologies of the German company Hundegger in the construction - 3D model designers: Tatiana Belousova, Elena Kyalunziga, Irina Movchan, Ekaterina Movchan. "Ecohouse Solar-5" was developed in 4 versions (the first, for the development of the village "Radovo": 5 pilot and 200 houses of the second stage - in 2005, and 3 options for private developers in 2007-2009; patent for invention of the Russian Federation 2342507; Gold medal of the international exhibition "Alternative energy"; Bronze statuette of St. George of the international exhibition "High technologies of the XXI century."
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