Prague, 13th of December 2022 - Urbanity Real Estate Group has launched the first Czech community energy block in the suburban manufacturing complex Urbanity Campus Tachov. This comprehensive energy strategy will ensure a stable energy supply for users of the production campus itself and the surrounding community. By focusing on community energy, Urbanity Group is actively contributing to solving the global environmental crisis in line with its ESG strategy and is moving towards carbon neutrality, decarbonisation and energy self-sufficiency.
 
The energy block is to provide all energy needs especially in the Urbanity Campus Tachov complex. The ambitious project includes several individual installations. Photovoltaic power plants will be placed on the roofs of the campus' hard-to-use production buildings and connected to large-scale battery storage and a series of charging stations for electric vehicles. For the management of the local distribution network, a smart energy management concept will be introduced based primarily on online optimization of energy flows.
 
Heat production will be provided by heat pumps connected to cogeneration units and storage tanks. New rules for the management of drinking water - whether rainwater, wastewater, or that provided by the company's own boreholes - will also be applied at the site.
 
"Locally generated energy will be clean, safe, interconnected, and will further reduce the energy intensity of local communities and thus their carbon footprint. For end consumers, this will also mean lower and more stable energy costs, reduced emissions and reduced energy dependence on public distribution networks," says Roland Hofman, co-founder of Urbanity Group, summarising the ambitions of the project.
 
The Urbanity Group currently operates in several other regions of the Czech Republic besides Tachov. In the locations where it operates, its main focus is on maximising the positive impact on the entire campus environment, its employees and local communities.
 
"We see interconnected green energy solutions as a key part of these ecosystems. We are therefore working with experts from a number of industry associations as well as academic institutions to implement a unique concept of community energy blocks that will include electricity, heat and water management," explains Roland Hofman. The group is actively cooperating with the Modern Energy Association, the Community Energy Union, the Alliance for Energy Self-Reliance and the UCEEB.
 
 "Work in the production area of Urbanity Campus Tachov is already in full swing. Currently, there has been a complete reconstruction of all networks, connections and electrical distribution systems, including the installation of a smart metering and control system. We also started the implementation of the largest Czech solar rooftop power plant with an output of almost 5 MW. In 2024 we are still planning to connect a new 110 kV transformer. As far as water conservation is concerned, we already retain water in the landscape with dry polders, soakaways or storage tanks. We are also considering the circular use of rainwater for economical technological cooling,"summarised Ondřej Šetka, Project Director of Urbanity Campus Tachov.
 
Community energy has boomed in recent years - and especially in light of the current energy crisis. Its specificity is to provide energy needs primarily from renewable sources, namely photovoltaic and wind power plants, cogeneration boilers, biogas stations, geothermal wells, etc. These sources are owned by civil communities, municipalities or industrial groups concentrated in one locality. Such an approach has numerous benefits - in addition to flexible energy transmission and generation aggregation, it also contributes to the stability of the local transmission system, operational savings and energy self-sufficiency independently from public distribution grids.
 
The Urbanity Group is planning to apply a similar strategy soon, for example, in the industrial  complex Urbanity Campus Bruntál. It strives to continue the development and transformation of brownfields with traditional industrial production. As part of this, it hopes to create a pleasant working environment for employees while promoting meaningful environmental solutions. The main pillars of this approach are renewable energy, sustainable technologies and blue-green infrastructure. The desired outcome is energy self-sufficiency and carbon neutrality of the individual campuses.