Since the Ski World Championship 2013 is going to take place in Schladming, ALLPLAN was invited by Schladming municipality to find out, how a sustainable cooling concept can fulfill both economical  and ecological requirements. In particular, in connection with the renewable energy it is often difficult to create a good team work between sustainability and economy; Media Center is a good example of taking advantage of infrastructural synergies.

To implement sustainability in the best way it is important to take optimal advantage of the available resources existing in the near environment. In the course of the feasibility analysis Allplan found out that the best option to make use of the available resources was the use of the river water for cooling, not only in ecological but also economical sense.

An analysis of the circumstances and the available potential synergies showed that hybrid cooling was the most sustainable solution. The water of the river Enns is led via the existing water pipe – which as matter of fact serves for snowmaking of the skiing resort – to a distribution well in the Media Center.  According to an actual temperature of the water it can be used to chill the refrigerating machine or – when being lower than 12°C – to direct cooling of the building. Through an existing rain water channel the Enns river water will be led back again. Consequently, when making use of the available natural resources the river water cooling can be effected without much extraordinary building expenditure.

Special attention had to be paid to hydraulic concept concerning the Media Center because the legal right to use river water according to Austrian Water protection law is only allowed under certain conditions since  the biogenic growth could lead to blockage of the pipes. To fulfill these requirements, the hydraulic concept must guarantee the rinsing of the plant and steady high flow velocities in the heat exchanger. Moreover, it has to be guaranteed that the water to be led back into the river Enns does not exceed the temperature of 20°C, this is to avoid any disturbance in the delicate ecological balance in the Enns.

The alternative cooling supply enables, with help of a reserve capacity of 400 KW built hereto, also the cooling of new buildings and annex houses in the close neighborhood. Around 30 tonnes CO₂ can be saved in connection with the Media Center in a year, if river water is used. This corresponds to CO₂-emission of an average car driving approx. 170,000 km in one year – i.e. 4,25 times around the world.

The project ‘river water cooling’ thus indicates that when using natural resources the investment and running costs are lower than the costs compared to conventional cooling options. This proves that the team work between ecology and economy when using renewable energies is not necessararily contradictory.

→ Live pictures of the construction site ←