Skellefteå Power is investing in a new project called "Project Zero Sun" for the construction of a house outside the network, it will be the first solar house in the world adapted to the climate in the north of Sweden. It is a villa that will produce its own electricity throughout the year using the sun and storing energy like hydrogen.
The construction of the villa "Zero Sun" has started now this winter and is expected to be completed in June of this year. The villa must be completely disconnected from the network. To be able to handle it, the villa has a self-sufficient energy system that consists of solar cells, batteries, hydrogen and fuel cells that interact. During the summer, the house produces electricity from solar cells. The surplus is stored for use in winter.
Hydrogen and fuel cells are a good complement to the generation of climate-dependent energy when there is a need for energy storage. By electrolysis, the excess can be used to produce hydrogen that can be stored in the tank. Using fuel cells, hydrogen is used to generate electricity again during cloudy days and during winter. In this way, hydrogen supplies electricity when electricity is needed.
- During some months, there are zero hours of sun here and very cold. Therefore, it is a great challenge to build a self-sufficient house without fossils in the climate of northern Sweden instead of going further south, says Christoffer Svanberg, head of business innovation at Skellefteå Kraft.
The house is supplied by A-house and is one of the standard villas of the company. In addition to the investment to make the house self-sufficient, it has a miniature intelligent electricity network, which means that it has a system that controls when the batteries will be charged and when the hydrogen will be produced.
There are more projects outside the network in progress in Sweden. Vårgårda has housing plans to renovate multifamily homes in one million program areas. Also there, solar cells and hydrogen will be used to make the houses self-sufficient in electricity. Both projects will be exciting to follow and provide new experiences on the combination of solar energy and hydrogen.
