In 2019, the kilowatt hour was at 18 cents. It is now at 30 cents minimum, sometimes much more (up to 45 cents including tax). In three years, the price of electricity has exploded. Except here: in this building in Brussels.
Insensitive to the outbreak, the price has not changed since January 1, and will not change before April 2023 at the earliest. Since the winter and for another nine months, the kWh has been – and will remain – at 25 cents, regardless of inflation and market prices. And even lower at night and on weekends: 22 cents.
And when the new rates are set next year, they will be set by the co-owners themselves, at a general meeting.
We found this miracle building at 27 and 27A avenue Marius Renard, in Anderlecht. Twenty-seven floors, 351 apartments, a good thousand inhabitants where a project has been carried out since last year.
A project that is currently unique in Belgium: it consists of combining three techniques for the self-production of green electricity, one of them developed in Gosselies by a subsidiary of the light aircraft manufacturer Sonaca. Explanations.
1. In the boiler room, the building has installed a so-called cogeneration unit which, with gas, produces heat and electricity. Conventional boilers produce heat. Here, the system, called a cogenerator, also produces electricity: 1.2 gigawatt hours per year. Twenty percent of this electricity is used, free of charge, for the operation of common building facilities such as lights, elevators, garage doors, etc. This is the first process.
2. The building has a 7,000 square meter roof on which 202 photovoltaic panels will be installed. The choice fell on the latest generation panels, a model designed to produce electricity even if part of the panel is not sunny. It is estimated that the 202 photovoltaic units will produce an additional 50,000 kWh per year. This is the second process.
3. The third is the wind blowing. Through its subsidiary Renowind, Sonaca has developed a machine for which it holds the world patent. Placed in a 1m80 by 2m50 box, the machine, sensitive to the slightest breath, is equipped with a rotor actuated by the ascending winds which rise along the 113 meters of the west facade of the building, the best exposed. The prototype was installed during the winter. It gives complete satisfaction. The condominium has decided to order 24 of them. They will produce around 45,000 kWh.
“And all this costs nothing to the co-owners insofar as each of the new investments is financed by the income generated by the previous ones: by the cogeneration that has been operating since 2018, by the income of the energy community and by the electricity self-produced by the building and resold to residents who have joined the project.”
This couple lives on the eighteenth floor. Between January and May 2022, it consumed 861 kWh. 82% of this electricity, or 708 kWh, was supplied to it in self-production by the building, which billed it at 25 cents – instead of the much higher rates charged by suppliers, according to market prices.
The project is led by the trustee company Managimm, which manages the building. Its manager, Vincent Spruytte, is enthusiastic. “We administer about twenty condominiums which, added together, produce around 1 megawatt of green energy every hour. At the same time, the Doel 1 nuclear power plant produces 433. Do the math: at the scale of the Brussels region, we could quite simply obtain, if everyone put their minds to it, downright the power of a nuclear reactor.
“Here, the income does not go into the pockets of the suppliers”
And it is now possible, continues Vincent Spruytte, thanks to the new European directive 2019/944 transcribed with us very recently, on March 17, 2022. “Europe wanted to make the consumer active in the energy transition. And that’s what we are achieving with this building. The income is directly reinvested in the co-ownership instead of going into the pocket of the suppliers.”
Mr. Spruytte already sees further. In his calculations, the green energy self-produced by the building could exceed the consumption needs on site. Not only would the building become self-sufficient, but the surplus, instead of being injected into the network, would be resold, in a social role, at a lower price than the market, to schools, swimming pools, communities.
We talked about it last year (DH 17/11/21). It happens very concretely. Much in demand, Vincent Spruytte sometimes organizes on-site visits. Let us add that if the project is not imposed on the inhabitants, tenants or owners of apartments, more and more adhere to it: at the last count, 138 out of the 351 households. Finally, it should be noted that it is not necessary to have such a high building.