Citycon is constructing a new shopping center in Espoonlahti in Espoo, Finland.

The new Lippulaiva will open in spring 2022. The leasable area of Lippulaiva will be 44,000 square meters and it will house approximately 80 retailers and services. In the same block, there will also be 8 residential buildings and a senior house. A new metro station will be opened beneath Lippulaiva in 2023.

Lippulaiva is acting as a demo-site in SPARCS-project where the concentration is on three main topics:

• sustainable energy production with geothermal heating and cooling systems, PV-panels and electric battery and smart control strategies;
• e-mobility with charging capacity to e-vehicles and boosting e-mobility in Lippulaiva area;
• and citizen engagement with piloting ways to engage and encourage citizens’ energy positive ways of behavior and co-creation of a shopping center with young consumers.

As Lippulaiva follows Citycon’s sustainability strategy to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, most of the energy consumed in Lippulaiva is produced on-site with a geothermal heat pump system and PV-panels.

Heating and cooling from carbon-free geothermal energy

The largest geothermal heating and cooling energy plant in Europe for a commercial building is being built under Lippulaiva. The energy plant will generate carbon-free energy to meet the heating and cooling needs of Lippulaiva. The energy plant is built by Adven, who is also in charge of the energy supply for Lippulaiva’s needs. Adven is also participating SPARCS-project. In SPARCS, Adven is developing a steering and controlling system for optimizing CO2 free heating and cooling production on site. In addition, predictive energy demand estimation systems will be assessed.

The geothermal energy plant consists of 170 wells extending to a depth of approximately 300 m, which have been drilled beneath the shopping center. The capacity of the geothermal energy systems is 4MW. Besides this, there will 500kW electricity boiler and district heating connection for peak demand for coldest outdoor temperatures as well as for back-up. The heat pump system and electric boiler uses certified renewable electricity. In SPARCS, also the possibility of selling extra heat to a local heating network is assessed. The energy system will also include heating and cooling of the apartment buildings as well as condensed heat recovery from the refrigeration units of the grocery stores.

Author: Kaisa Kontu, Project manager, Citycon Oyj