Lippulaiva, an urban centre surrounded by residential buildings, was opened in Espoonlahti, Finland in the spring of 2022. Lippulaiva represents the future of convenient urban living. It’s a full-service, mixed-use, urban hub with several large grocery anchors, a wide range of private and municipal services, and a direct connection to the metro.
It’s also a pioneer in sustainable energy solutions, such as geothermal energy, solar panels and the smart management of energy consumption. But what’s so special about Lippulaiva?
Pioneering sustainable energy solutions
With its 171 geothermal energy wells, 2400 sq/m of solar panels and 3500 sq/m of green roofing, Lippulaiva has some of the most advanced energy solutions in the world and has been carbon neutral in terms of energy consumption from day one.
Lippulaiva’s electricity consumption is optimised with a smart system that manages a wide range of the centre’s electricity consumption areas and a large electric battery. It forms part of the Finnish “demand response” market. When the national energy network is affected by energy loss or peak, the centre offers its resources to balance market demand.
The centre’s geothermal heat pump system is the world largest geothermal plant in a centre, with a heating capacity of 4 megawatts. This utilises excess heat from grocery stores and provides heating and cooling for residential buildings too.
Thanks to its environmentally friendly solutions, the centre has received a LEED GOLD certificate. Lippulaiva was also the first centre in the world to be awarded a Smart Building Gold certificate. These measure the environmental performance of the building and design phase and how smart buildings are using broad criteria, such as building usage, performance, and the environment.
Promoting e-mobility and biking
In addition to its smart energy solutions, Lippulaiva is supporting e-mobility and biking with appropriate parking and charging infrastructure. At the moment, the centre has 134 charging stations for electronic vehicles and a technical reservation for expanding the charging system.
The centre has over 1400 bicycle racks, and indoors bike storage facilities where visitors and tenants alike have the option to clean their bikes and conduct small repairs with the tools provided for free by Citycon. It also has e-bike charging infrastructure, where the e-bike battery can be securely charged in a lockable locker.
