Helsinki on the lookout for the builders of the city’s most energy-efficient building

Planning and preparation for the edifice’s construction have already been finalized

Helsinki’s housing industry has launched a project to try to make residential buildings as energy-efficient as possible. The pilot project is a rental house in Sompasaari to be built for the apartments of the City of Helsinki (Heka). The building and the means to save energy have already been planned, and a builder is now being sought.

Bringing energy efficiency to every part of the city

In the Carbon Neutral Helsinki 2035 program, the city is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from new buildings by more than 80 percent.

Housing produces more than half of Helsinki's emissions. Centralized energy production solutions alone are not enough to achieve this goal. Residential buildings also need solutions that combine the energy efficiency of structures and equipment, house-specific energy production solutions and the ability of properties to produce energy. 

This new building fits perfectly into the Finnish capital’s overarching carbon neutrality strategy and will incorporate all the best practices needed to make it fully energy efficient. The heat of solar radiation entering the building is recovered and stored in a district cooling network or utilized directly by the property using a heat pump while heat is also recovered from wastewater and exhaust air. Alongside district heating, the edifice will also make use of geothermal heat.

Furthermore, electrical equipment and lighting will be integrated with very low energy consumption and electricity will be generated by solar panels and photovoltaics installed on the water roof and facade of the building.

“There is no known other apartment building in Helsinki where the energy efficiency during the use of the residential building would be the consumption level targeted in the project. The project focuses on how the building would consume the least energy during the use of the building” explained project manager Sanne Varpanen from Housing Production.