As part of a pilot project, the largest housing and property co-op in Norway, OBOS Group, invested in PV plants on six of their buildings in Oslo in a partnership with Fortum Oslo Varme AS (formerly registered as Hafslund Varme AS at the project inception), the firm that provided the EPC services for the project.
Green Responsibility
OBOS Group is a Norwegian housing co-op association that began operating in 1929 in Oslo to offer housing development at a time when it was difficult to get bank financing for the average worker. Since that time, OBOS has grown to be the largest co-operative building association in the Nordic region. There are over 450,000 co-op members and the company manages circa 220,000 dwellings in Norway.
In the past years, the environmental building regulations have been getting stricter and the members of OBOS have growing interest in more environmental solutions, such as lowering carbon emissions, local production of energy, more energy efficiency, etc.
As part of what they call green responsibility (#grøntansvar), OBOS is pursuing green initiatives and offering sustainable energy solutions for their customers in order to face the upcoming climate change challenges.
“We care about the footprint we put in the environment, and so do our customers. This is a step in the right direction for us as the owner of several commercial properties and shopping malls. One of OBOS’ goals is to become climate neutral by 2021,” says Mr. Nils Bøhler, Executive Vice President for Commercial Property at OBOS.
Valuable Experience
One of the objectives for initiating the 1.29MW PV solar pilot project was for OBOS to gain experience with PV rooftop plants and suppliers. The long term goal after gaining experience with PV was to potentially roll out similar measures on other buildings or housing companies in Norway that wanted to install solar modules on their own roofs.
The pilot project was an important part of OBOS’ commitment to green and sustainable energy. Investment in hydro-power as well as PV will help the company become self-sufficient with sustainable energy by 2021.
“This is an important part of OBOS’ commitment to green and sustainable energy. We want to pave the way for housing companies to benefit from the experience we do. In the long term, we expect housing companies to install solar cells themselves,” says Ms. Birgitte Molstad, environmental director at OBOS.
“The solar cell project is about more than profitability, today there is a long payback period for this type of plant. It is competence building that is important for us as a company to be able to help achieve the climate goals. As a major player in the real estate industry, we have a clear social responsibility, which we are very conscious of,” says Ms. Molstad.
