Masterplan Climate Positive Development Area, Niederanven, Luxembourg

Masterplan Climate Positive Development Area

The planned new district for living is divided into three construction phases: Kazenheck, Op de Wolléken, and An der Streuobstwiesen. The expansion of the town is intended to take into account the interests of the inhabitants of both today and tomorrow and to ensure a harmonious coexistence within the community.
Transsolar carried out wind studies with CFD simulations, which revealed important approaches for achieving the best possible outdoor comfort at several meeting points of the quarter, such as cafés, squares, restaurants.
To achieve the goal of staying outdoors in comfort at different times of the year, good air circulation must be ensured in summer while providing as much shade as possible. In winter, the sun's rays should be used to maximum effect, while strong and cold winds should be kept out. The simulations show the differences between the selected locations and also show examples of how measures can improve comfort.

The new district is to become environmentally friendly and climate-positive. "Climate-positive" is a rating based on an energy balance over the span of one year. The CO2 emissions generated during operation are more than compensated by locally and regenerated energy: electricity from photovoltaics. The generated emission-free and surplus electricity avoids conventional power generation elsewhere and is therefore CO2 negative and positive for the global climate.

This is made possible by the lowest possible energy requirement of all buildings in the district with the help of particularly efficient building envelopes, here in the passive house standard AAA, in accordance with the recommendations of the Grand-Ducal regulations, as well as efficient building services, including heat recovery.
In combination with local power generation by means of approx. 19,000 m² /204,500 ft² of photovoltaic modules, this avoids CO2 emissions of approx. 40 t per year overall. Photovoltaics can cover about 30% of the buildings' electricity requirements through direct use. The surplus electricity generated during the day can be fed into the public grid or can be used for e-mobility:
The energy is sufficient for about 14,500 charging processes of average e-cars per year or for more than five million kilometers of driving.

To develop the energy supply concept for the master plan, Transsolar carried out dynamic simulations, determined specific heat and power requirements, and calculated the expected maximum values for heating output and electricity consumption of the district.
From the ecological-economic comparison of different concepts for energy supply, local heating with central wood-fired boilers proved to be the best solution. Heat from biomass is a renewable and locally available energy.
For the heat supply of each construction phase, a local heating supply with central wood boiler (100 kW) in combination with a gas boiler (420 kW) is recommended. The wood boiler covers about 80% of the heat demand. A central heating system with wood storage space will be installed in the multi-story parking garage at the neighborhood sites of each construction phase.
A possible extension of the planned local heating network by more than 100 existing single-family homes was also calculated.