Norvento’s CIne building, 100% self-sufficient with renewables, receives the Special Award for Sustainability by the Xunta de Galicia

• The award is part of the 2018 Architecture and Rehabilitation Awards of the Autonomous Region of Galicia.
• The building is 100% disconnected from the electricity and gas grid, self-sufficient with renewable energies generated on site, and built with local and sustainable materials.

Lugo, 1^st October 2018.-  The Norvento Enerxía Innovation Centre (CIne, by its Spanish acronym), the current Norvento headquarters, has won the Architecture and Rehabilitation Award of the Autonomous Region of Galicia, awarded by the Xunta de Galicia (Regional Government) in the category of Special Award for Sustainability.

The aim of these Architecture Awards organised by the Xunta de Galicia is to promote excellence in our architecture and rehabilitation by acknowledging the quality of the buildings. The Special Award for Sustainability seeks to highlight the implementation of responsible architecture committed to the environment, resources and future generations in line with European programmes and Horizon Europe 2020.

The President and founder of Norvento, Pablo Fernández Castro, expressed “pride in this recognition. Our intention with this project was to combine sustainability and state-of-the-art technology, this award recognises the effort of several years to achieve that goal.“

An off-grid building

The CIne building, located in the As Gándaras business park in Lugo, has been conceived from its initial design phase to be a zero-energy building, aimed at promoting a new, more efficient and environmentally friendly energy model. The architectural design of the CIne has been carried out by the renowned Navarrese architect Patxi Mangado, and is the result of decades of R&D&I by Norvento.

It can accommodate up to 200 workers and is Norvento’s main wind farm operations and monitoring centre. The facility also includes a laboratory for experimentation with renewable technologies. The CIne supplies all of its energy needs – both electricity and heating/cooling – from a variety of on-site renewable sources, allowing the building to operate independently, completely disconnected from the electricity and gas grid. This is made possible in part by the integration of batteries, which allow energy to be stored at times of high production and used when production drops. The micro-grid that supplies the building combines wind power, photovoltaics, and a cogeneration unit that uses recycled vegetable oil. On average, 35% of the energy comes from wind, 60% from the sun, and 5% from vegetable oil.

This innovation centre is a clear example of how Norvento’s technology can help the industrial sector to achieve full self-sufficiency and self-management of energy through renewables.

In addition, sustainable and local materials have been used in its construction to integrate it into the environment and thus minimise its environmental impact. These criteria have been highly valued by the Xunta de Galicia when awarding it the Special Award for Sustainability.

About Norvento

Norventois a Spanish renewable technologies company with a comprehensive capacity for action. Based in Lugo (Galicia), the company is 100% Spanish-owned and has been operating in the market for more than 35 years. The activities of Norvento cover manufacturing technology, design, promotion, building, and operation of centralised generated renewable energy facilities (mainly wind farms), generation for distributed generation for industry, and ad hoc energy engineering solutions for customers.

With an active presence in five international markets (the United Kingdom, Brazil, the United States, Poland and Italy), Norvento currently has 120 MW in operation in Spain and a pipeline of more than 540MW in different stages of development.