Russian President visits Green Lighthouse
President Medvedev tours Denmark's first public carbon-neutral building - a building for the future made of components of today.
As part of the two-day official state visit to Denmark, the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, today visited the Green Lighthouse in Copenhagen. The President was given a guided tour of Denmark's first carbon-neutral public building, a student service centre at University of Copenhagen.
Green Lighthouse is outstanding in many ways. It has a unique energy concept with a combination of solar thermal energy, seasonal storage and district heating. Because Green Lighthouse allows a great amount of daylight to enter, it is an energy-efficient building of high architectural quality. The natural ventilation assures plenty of fresh air and a healthy indoor climate for the users.
"With Green Lighthouse we are demonstrating that it is possible to construct buildings that are carbon-neutral while offering both fresh air and good daylight conditions," says VELUX Group CEO Jørgen Tang-Jensen.
"And, most importantly, we have shown that it is possible to construct a climate-friendly building with the standard building components of today."
The sun is the pivotal point and primary energy source of Green Lighthouse, generating energy for both light and heating. The building is highly energy-efficient, consuming about 75% less energy than present Danish building standards require.
"Buildings account for more than 40% of all energy consumption in Europe, so they constitute a substantial potential when it comes to reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions. As a consequence, our primary focus at the VELUX Group is on developing sustainable buildings that make the best possible use of the energy of the sun," says VELUX Group CEO Jørgen Tang-Jensen.
Green Lighthouse is a concrete result of the strategic public-private alliance between the University of Copenhagen, The Danish University and Property Agency, the Municipality of Copenhagen, VELFAC and the VELUX Group. The partners entered into a synergetic team-work in order to construct a new sustainable office building with optimal balance between energy efficiency, architectural quality, healthy indoor climate and good daylight conditions. In 2009 the partnership was awarded with the innovation award for cooperation by the Confederation of Danish Industry.