SPECIFIC IKC – The Active Office

SPECIFIC IKC has partnered with Naked Energy to install 40 Virtu tubes at the “Active Office”, the UK’s first energy positive office building, to decarbonise heat and power demand.

“…makes good use of an element of the building envelope not normally used for energy capture and provides an architecturally striking and visibly appealing addition”

- Justin Searle, SPECIFIC UK.

Overarching breakdown of project

Client
SPECIFIC IKC

Sector
Education / Research 

Location
Swansea, UK

Technology
VirtuPVT

Client/Background

Led by Swansea University, SPECIFIC is a UK national Innovation and Knowledge Centre (IKC) with partners including Tata Steel, NSG and AkzoNobel. The centre was established in 2011 to research how innovative technologies, such as solar collectors, can be deployed to make buildings more environmentally responsive. Active buildings “support the energy network by intelligently integrating renewable energy technologies for heat, power and transport” (SPECIFIC).

Brief

The SPECIFIC Active Office is an energy positive concept: it generates more energy through its renewable energy installations than is used to operate and heat the building. SPECIFIC aimed to demonstrate the active building concept, by using commercially available technologies, and provide a solution that is replicable and scalable.

Virtu Solution

Virtu heats water and generates electricity for the building. With high energy density, Virtu can generate up to 3.5x the energy outputs of solar PV, for the same area. Included in the Active Office energy system are 40 Virtu hybrid solar collectors, providing heat and power to the building.

The collectors are mounted on the south-facing facade of the office and have been operating since January 2019. In combination with a roof mounted PV array, the electrical output is directly in the building. The solar heat is stored in a 2000 litre thermal store via an indirect coil, and this heat is used for sanitary hot water and space heating. The Virtu array is monitored using Naked Energy’s monitoring platform, Clarity247, which enables SPECIFIC to identify potential outages and to track generation.

Benefits

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1.2 tonnes annual CO2 savings

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Generates up to 2.8 MWh thermal and electrical outputs per year

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Recognised by numerous awards, including ‘The Most Innovative Building Project’ and ‘Most Innovative Public Sector Project’ at the 2021 Building Innovation awards.

Justin Searle, SPECIFIC UK:

“Incorporation of the Virtu tubes on the vertical elevation makes good use of an element of the building envelope not normally used for energy capture and provides an architecturally striking and visibly appealing addition, which has created significant interest and interaction with all the visitors to the Active Office. We are pleased with the performance of the system and the close working relationship with Naked Energy and look forward to further optimisation over the coming months as the building systems change and become more closely integrated and controlled.”