SAU working on global energy strategy for Usquare.brussels

The Urban Development Corporation (SAU), which is coordinating the conversion of the former Fritz Toussaint barracks in Ixelles as part of the Usquare.brussels project, is working on the development of an energy management strategy for the twenty or so current and future buildings on the 3.85-hectare site.

In this context, the SAU has just appointed by competitive tender the consultancy SWECO to help it to work out a general energy strategy for the entire site and then to implement that strategy throughout the development of the Usquare.brussels project.This approach builds on the preliminary renewable energy studies conducted by researchers from ULB and VUB.

The work in this area should ensure that the SAU and its partners take an enlightened approach to the choices and decisions they make on the following points in particular.

• Determining energy performance ambition levels for the different operations, taking account of the different building types (converted and new) involved.
• Calculating on the basis of the set performance levels the heating, cooling and electricity requirements of the different operations.
• Building and evaluating various energy scenarios incorporating the different resources, technologies and distribution methods.
• Developing the technical, economic and legal feasibility of the chosen energy scenario so that the SAU can move ahead with its operational implementation.

Gilles Delforge, the director of the SAU, underlines that ‘This work fully reflects the Region’s ambition of making Usquare.brussels an open, diverse and dynamic district that is urban and welcoming, university-centred and international, sustainable and innovative. The idea here is to study – with a view to implementation – innovative and sustainable energy solutions based on renewable and/or recovered resources to meet the energy needs of the different functions (family and student housing, academic activities, local facilities) planned for the site.’

In parallel with this general study led by the SAU, the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) began test drilling to a depth of 250 metres in mid-March to assess the feasibility and advisability of a geothermal system. The results of the universities’ test will feed into the broader study that the SAU is commencing to define the overall energy strategy to be implemented across the entire Usquare.brussels site.