The first construction site in Vienna to produce its own solar power

A construction site needs a lot of electricity. Besides large equipment such as cranes and smaller tools such as saws, energy is also needed for the site cabins. The container cabins have to be heated in the winter and cooled in the summer, and laptops, tablets, computers and coffee machines are used there every day. If a connection to the public grid is available, this is normally taken as a source of power; other times, however, a construction site may have to be powered by diesel generators. That’s not very climate-friendly!

Solar power straight from roof of the site office

On one of our construction sites at Vienna’s Nordbahnhof, we recently launched a pilot project to supply the construction site cabins with green energy through a photovoltaic system – with encouraging results!

The container ensemble houses the offices for 20 members of the STRABAG construction team currently working on a residential project here. Their work requires not only numerous electronic devices such as laptops, monitors, smartphones and tablets but also air-conditioning units and heating systems. This energy demand will now be covered in a climate-neutral manner thanks to the photovoltaic system on the roof of the container cabins. If the system produces more energy than is needed by the site office, the excess energy is made available for use on the construction site.

The goal: off-grid, self-sufficient construction sites

The photovoltaic system, consisting of 108 panels with a total surface area of 235 m² on 18 container roofs, will generate a peak output of 48 kW. Planning, implementation and maintenance will be carried out internally by STRABAG BMTI, the mechanical engineering service provider within the STRABAG Group. In a first step, the solar power will cover the energy needs of the site cabins. In the future, large equipment and machines, such as cranes and excavators, could also be operated entirely with green energy.