A BRUGG GROUP COMPANY
Project
Insulated pipe systems at the Swiss Museum of Transport
At Switzerland’s largest and most famous museum – the Swiss Museum of Transport located directly on Lake Lucerne – BRUGG Pipes collaborated on an amazing project together with Energie Wasser Luzern (ewl) in March 2022. The district heating and cooling lines connect the new energy centre of the new “House of Energy” multi-purpose building to the existing exhibition buildings through the outdoor area.
Execution
Use of lake water as a modern and ecological source of heating and cooling in Lucerne.
The system is located in the outdoor area of the museum, which is also open to visitors, so fast and efficient execution of the project was of utmost importance and central for all involved parties. Thanks to detailed project planning and coordination, the project went smoothly and was completed on schedule. Installation was carried out by our own installation team to the complete satisfaction of the customer.
A special feature of this project was that the lake water in the immediate vicinity was used as an energy source and distributed with a heat pump. The lake has large heat and cold reserves that can be used ecologically. This is an inexpensive and renewable source of energy with low investment costs and low maintenance. Thanks to the energy from the lake, the use of fossil fuels can be greatly reduced, thereby minimising CO2 emissions. Since the energy is produced locally, long transport routes are not necessary and the added value stays in the region
Project
Many people still remember the city of Kinshasa as the place where George Foreman came up against Muhammad Ali in the legendary 1974 boxing match in the former Zaïre (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Nearly 40 years later, BRUGG pipes from Switzerland were able to be delivered to the DRC in central Africa for the first time in the fight against the tropical climate. As daytime temperatures nearly always exceed 30°C and the relative humidity is usually around 80%, corrosion was a constant problem in the past on the steel pipes insulated by hand that were used for the cooling pipes. We were finally able to convince the 5-star Hotel Memling to use our COOLFLEX pipes, which were ideal for the situation. Importantly, we were able to provide a full range of services, such as planning, tendering, transport organisation, installation training and supervision on-site.
Execution
As the hotel was kept open during the entire renovation phase and new challenges kept cropping up constantly, we very much needed the exceptional improvisational skills associated with Africa. Despite the numerous challenges, we were able to keep to the schedule without any problems and the system was successfully handed over to the customer.
On Wednesday, 13 October 2018, the district heating (CAD) and cooling (FAD) line in Sion (Switzerland) got the official green light.
The sun shone over the official celebrations, which were held together with the authorities, energy service providers, legal representatives and installers. The location of the festivities was symbolic – in front of the new buildings of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale university (often abbreviated as EPFL), which were under construction. Rather appropriately, EPFL is committed to the energy industry and the environment.
This ambitious project will be supplied by the future Sion waste incinerator, where waste will be used to produce 100 million kWh/year of thermal energy. This is the equivalent of 10 million litres of heating oil. This energy will mean a CO2 reduction of approx. 20,000 tons per year. After completion, the network is estimated to have 500 building connections, supplying around 10,000 households within a 20 km radius with energy.
