Berliner Ring Real Estate

Green energy for home use

At the time of construction, Berliner Ring was the biggest solar plant in Austria

The housing estate Berliner Ring with its high rise buildings was constructed in the 1960s. The over 700 flats are owned by individual owners and not by a single company. This was a special challenge for installing the solar system in 2004–2006, as each owner had to agree with the solar installation.

There was need for roof renovation and this made collector installation easier. Also the heat supplier of the settlement wanted green energy in addition to district heating. So there was a good opportunity both to mount collectors on the roofs

SOLID built the systems step by step in parallel with the roof renovations. Overall hot water supply for 756 residential units in 22 buildings. There is sophisticated feed-in system for solar heat: first it supplies the building underneath the collectors. When the building’s demand is satisfied, other buildings of the housing are supplied via the heating grid. When these are also satisfied, the heat is stored in two tanks with 60 m³ in total.

The inhabitants of the top level apartment benefit from shading of the roofs. This solutions is a nice showcase for existing buildings. Due to solar thermal integration, it was easier to obtain subsidies also for façade and roof renovation.