2023-07-24 06:30:30
The Olympic and Paralympic Games will start in just over a year. The sporting challenge is coupled with an environmental and social challenge. One of the aspects is the reuse of facilities and accommodation created for the occasion. The Athletes’ Village symbolizes the process.
A global event in the sports sector, the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP) are also an opportunity for energy companies to show off their know-how. Indeed, from July 24 to August 11 for the former, then from August 28 to September 8 for the latter, thousands of athletes will be accommodated: the question then arises of the energy performance of their accommodation. This dimension was completely innocuous before, but climate pressure obliges, each choice must now be argued. We remember how the air conditioning of stadiums in Qatar during the 2022 FIFA World Cup rightly drew criticism…
More globally, the Organizing Committee of the JOP in Paris wants to halve the event’s greenhouse gas emissions compared to previous editions. For example, 95% use of existing or temporary infrastructure should reduce the environmental footprint. The new facilities are intended to be exemplary, such as the Seine-Saint-Denis aquatic center which was designed with a lot of recycled or biosourced materials, has 5,000 m² of photovoltaic panels, and will be reconfigured following the Games for the use of the population. Even the electrical networks are reinforced, both on the side of Enedis to avoid the use of generators, as well as on the side of RTE which makes four 225,000 V lines underground in the north of Paris. By removing 15 km of overhead cables and 27 pylons in this dense urban area, thanks to a dedicated 2.4 km tunnel, RTE frees up 87 hectares.
New heat network
The most emblematic project of the JOP is that of the Athletes’ Village, located in three towns in northern Paris: Saint-Denis, Saint-Ouen-Sur-Seine and L’Île-Saint-Denis. It will accommodate more than 2,300 athletes and their companions from all over the world during the summer of 2024 in new accommodation built on an area of 53 hectares. Many buildings are already being delivered and, like any new building, must comply with the regulations in force for energy and environmental performance. It is even specifically planned that the carbon content of certain constructions, such as those at Vinci, be halved compared to usual practices, to reach 700 kgCO2/m². It is also expected that they will be without air conditioning, contrary to usual practice.
So that these buildings ensure thermal comfort, winter and summer, they are equipped with a heating/cooling floor, fed in the first case by water at 45°C and in the other by water at 7°C. The choice fell on this solution, which is suitable for well-insulated buildings and suitable for the use of an urban heating/cooling network. Just as these homes are new, a new network was built for the occasion by ENGIE Solutions, which invested 28 million euros with 5 million euros in public aid (Île-de-France Region and Ademe). To deliver the 30 GWh of energy per year that it will need, the technology chosen had to favor renewable energies. Low surface temperature geothermal energy was chosen: 11 boreholes (3 collector wells and 8 injection wells) capture water at 17°C at a depth of 70 m and release it at 12°C. The sample is taken at a rate of approximately 325 m3/h. The adjustment of the temperatures is done thanks to 6 thermo-fridge-pumps, for a total power of 5 MW. The network is made up of two return circuits, one for cold and one for heat. A connection of this network is made with the already existing heating network of the Plaine Commune. Putting everything together (including the electricity needed for the thermo-fridge-pumps), the new buildings thus have 68% renewable energy.
Evolution following the Games
The hot/cold network has 78 delivery points in the Athletes’ Village, which will of course continue to operate once the JOPs are over. The entire area will be adapted to become a residential and economic activity district, where more than 2,800 housing units are planned, a student residence, a hotel, two additional school groups, 3,200 m² of local shops, offices for 6,000 employees, 6 ha of green spaces. Some homes, to be delivered in 2025, are already on sale.
Long gone are the days when this area, at the very beginning of the 20th century, hosted coal-fired power stations to supply the Paris metro with electricity! With the JOP and in the years to follow, the designers of the district want to give the image of the city of the future. In any case, it will be a place where new approaches will be tested. For example, EDF and its subsidiaries (Dalkia, Izivia and EDF EnR) plan photovoltaic production on certain roofs of the Village, with storage in stationary batteries and in the batteries of electric vehicles, and management of the building’s electricity needs by predictive algorithms. The experiment should show that it is possible to optimize the use of batteries in order to limit the withdrawal of electricity from the network and thus reduce the tensions on the electrical system.
Like what, the Olympic and Paralympic Games are sport. But not only.
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