BRICKER project general assembly and site visit in Càceres – hosted by the government of extremadura

Worth around €13 million, this four-year project aims to cut consumption in public, non-residential buildings by 50%. It is coordinated by Juan Ramón de las Cuevas from Madrid-based ACCIONA, and includes three demonstration buildings, one of which is an administrative building in Cáceres managed by the Government of Extremadura. Buildings owned by public bodies account for a considerable share of the building stock and have high visibility in public life. As such the European public sector can be an important driver for more efficient products, buildings and services, and for promoting behavioural changes in energy consumption by citizens and enterprises.

The General Assembly takes place in Cáceres from the 1^st October to the 3^rd and comes as BRICKER is entering its second year. On day one, delegates reflect on the work undertaken so far and have the opportunity to attend a workshop on exploitation of project results and intellectual property rights. The agenda for day two features a visit to the Cáceres demonstration site and the last day will be dedicated to a series of work package sessions aimed at planning the coming months.

BRICKER calls on the cutting-edge expertise of various types of partner. These include technological SMEs, research organisations, construction companies, public bodies and a media agency. The project sets out to develop and demonstrate high energy efficient and cost-effective retrofitting solutions. The key asset lies in their replicability so that architects, designers, promoters and end-users alike may adopt these solutions, thus boosting retrofitting of low energy consuming public-owned buildings in Europe.

In addition to the Cáceres demonstration site, BRICKER has a site in the Turkish town of Aydin and another in Liège, Belgium. The Aydin site involves a university hospital block which is part of the Adnan Menderes University, partner in the project. Lightweight façade covers, heat recovery systems and parabolic solar panels will be fitted as part of the retrofitting interventions. In Liège, where the last steering committee took place in March, the demonstration site is home to an engineering college managed by BRICKER partner Province de Liège. The steering committee were shown all over the building including the basement and top floor in order to be briefed on the technologies to be deployed under BRICKER. The visit looked at the heat distribution system, gas boilers, aerating windows and electric systems.

The BRICKER demonstrations will play a pivotal role in reaching EU energy reduction targets and is expected to produce far-reaching results in the areas such as demand reduction strategies, integration of innovative hybrid cogeneration systems and effective interactions of energy flows and improved methodologies for interconnectivity.