"Win with the sun! " Second season of Solar League (Suncrown Championship 2011) in Hungary

Photovoltaic panels on local government buildings in Hungary: Despite the fact that the current Hungarian subsidy system is not really encouraging for photovoltaic instalments, several significant solar panel projects have been realized in 2010 and 2011 in public institutions.

Szolnok (population: 74656) In Middle-East Hungary, the first Photovoltaic system on a protected monument was realized on Szolnok’s County Hall

The local government of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county developed the electricity supply system of the County Hall in a very modern way. The first photovoltaic plant on a monument building in Hungary is connected to the grid, has a maximum capacity of 27.72 kW, consists of 132 polycrystalline solar cells started producing energy in September, 2010. Before the installment of the system thebuilding had an energy audit, and winning a national public tender contributed to the financing of the project at a 70% intensity. The permit of the National Office of Cultural Heritage was also needed. The project was completed in 73 days. This is the third largest solar power plant in Hungary, but if we look at buildings of public utilities, this system is the second biggest. An interesting aspect of the system is that it not only produces energy for its own consumption, but also feeds electricity back into the existing grid, thus at the end of the month the local government has to pay the price of a decreasing consumption. On weekends the County Hall does not use electricity, it only feeds energy into the grid. During the summer, the cooling systems will be fed by the PV installations. The production of the system can be followed online as well. 

The municipality is willing to enhance the part of renewable energies in the energy supply of the city. Furthermore, there is a 3,3 MW biomass heating plant that secures 15-20% of the heat demand of the district heating system in the city. The further plans for the fuel supplies is to establish energy-plantations on the fields around the city.

Budapest XI. district (Újbuda) – the local government is ahead of the public institutions in electricity production with photovoltaic installations. Solar power plant with an output of 90 kW

Újbuda’s local government is playing a leading role in Hungary in installing renewable energy producing systems on public buildings. The local government installed a solar power plant (50 kWp nominal performance, polycrystalline, grid-connected) on its largest building in 2011. A national energy tender contributed to the project with an intensity of 45%, so the largest local government PV plant of Hungary was inaugurated on 14 January, 2011. It was realized ahead of schedule: The first two stages with 20 kW nominal performance and the third stage of the instalment was realized in January 2011. The solar power plant is connected to the grid. When the building consumes more energy than what is produced by the solar cells, the electricity produced is consumed immediately, thus diminishing the consumption of purchased energy. On weekends and holidays the energy consumption is lower than the amount of energy produced, therefore the surplus energy is fed into the grid of the electricity provider, decreasing the amount of electricity purchased in the given month. Owing to its 90 kW nominal performance, the system realized in three stages produces 122,000 kW/h electricity annually, and reduces CO2 emission in the city by 120 tons. The three systems currently cover 9-11% of the annual energy demand of the buildings, and significantly reduce the extent to which the sunlight heats up the offices through the roof structure, thus diminishing the demand for air conditioning, which is another means of cost reduction. The investment on the third system will be recovered in 8 years according to our calculations. Currently this is the largest system operating on local government buildings. The production data of the solar power plant are publicly available on the internet.

In the district the House of Public Servants also received a complex energy efficiency retrofitting, and a system of solar thermal collectors and photovoltaics producing renewable energy was installed on the building.The kind of “block house” building used to provide lodging to blue-collar workers before the 1990’s, now public servants working in one of the institutions of the district or in the police force who do not have residence in Budapest can live here at a reduced price.The authority supported the replacement of doors and windows, the external heat insulation and roof insulation of the building, and the adjustability of the heating system in the framework of a tender, and supported for the use of solar energy for heating and electricity production. The energy management renovation of the building started in September 2010 with the two subsidies above, and the system was fully handed over on 17 January 2010. The building was completed with 10 cm thick outer heat insulation, 10 cm thick roof heat insulation, a new water insulation solution, modern windows on the facade, and thermostatic radiator valves. To further reduce energy consumption, 25 vacuum-tube solar thermal collectors were installed for hot water production, as well as a grid-connected, feed-in solar power plant consisting of 83 monocrystalline solar cell modules with a nominal performance of 20 kW.