The Social Hub, a hybrid hospitality company, has received approval from the Municipality of Eindhoven to install IBIS Power’s ‘PowerNEST’ wind and solar solution on the roof of The Social Hub Eindhoven.
The 630 m2 structure is expected to provide 17% of energy needed for the hotel, student accommodation and co-working space. The first conversations between The Social Hub, IBIS Power and the municipality of Eindhoven began in 2021. The City of Eindhoven has now approved a PowerNEST by Ibis Power to upgrade the building to renewable energy.
Accelerating an energy transition
The Social Hub is on a journey to be as responsible and impactful as possible and minimize the negative impact on the environment. The Social Hub is currently in the process of setting science-based targets for their greenhouse gas emissions and is targeting an 82% reduction of its Scope 1 and 2 emissions per square meter by 2032 compared to its footprint in 2018-2019.
The Social Hub’s energy transition road map includes considering options to self-generate wind and solar power via roof-spaces and facades. As new property developments already consider green energy goals in their design, The Social Hub, headquartered in Amsterdam, is now examining how it can best retrofit existing properties. With a portfolio of 23 hubs situated in predominantly urban areas across Europe, space is at a premium. Therefore, the company is looking for solutions that will reduce reliance on over-burdened electricity grids, lower costs, and provide solutions for the clean energy transition.
Sustainability transformation in urban environments
Sustainable power in urban environments is another way to reach this goal. According to IBIS Power, the PowerNEST solution can deliver 6-10x more energy on the limited roof space of medium and high-rise buildings by extracting the highest possible efficiency from wind and solar energy. PowerNEST integrates with the architecture of the building..
Rik Thijs, Eindhoven’s Alderman responsible for climate, energy, soil and greening says, “We hope that this collaboration and innovation application can be an example for other cities to follow. As the city of Eindhoven, we want to be a testing ground for these kinds of sustainable initiatives. As alderman for climate and energy, I see we need to accelerate. We are a smart ‘Brainport’ region (top technology region where technologies are developed that change lives), and we must use this available knowledge to stop climate change.”
Alexander Suma, CEO IBIS Power comments: “We need to adopt new ways to make our existing medium and high- rise buildings Net Zero Energy as they are the largest energy users in the city. The way The Social Hub, the City of Eindhoven and our team have worked together is a great and successful example of implementing large scale, impactful sustainable innovations in the urban area. This important approval by the Municipality of Eindhoven is paving the way for future sustainable building transformations.”
Construction is due to start in the summer this year. After five weeks of construction the preparations for the effective placement of the PowerNEST on the 630 m2 roof of The Social Hub Eindhoven can officially begin. Source: The Social Hub
