Peek Inside the Nazi Bunker That Will Become Europe’s Largest Solar Power Plant
- Posted on November 15, 2011 at 12:03pm by
Liz Klimas
- Print »
- Email »
Hamburg's former Nazi bunker will be Europe's largest solar power plant by 2013. (Photo: IBA Hamburg/M. Kunze)
This former Nazi bunker is big enough to hold 80 single-family homes, TreeHugger reports. While its original purpose was as a stronghold for up to 30,000 people, after post-WWII unsure the building is now set to become Europe’s largest solar power plant.
(Photo: Jerry James Stone via TreeHugger)
The plant is expected to serve 3,000 households with heat — 1,000 of which will also get electricity. TreeHugger has more on the refurbishing of the building located in the Wilhelmsburg district of Hamburg:
The nine story structure (called a Flaktürme in German) will boast a 110 kWh rooftop photovoltaic system and a south-facing 0.6 GWh solar-thermal unit come 2012. The building’s interior is being reserved for even further expansion. By 2013 the structure will house a 10.5 GWh woodchip combined heat and power plant (CHP), and a 3.7 GWh biomethane plant powered by a nearby industrial plant, for example. Waste heat will also be stored.
[...]
Re-tooling of the bunker is being orchestrated by the IBA Hamburg Gmbh. IBA, which had its inaugural year back in 2007, stands for Internationale Bauausstellung (International Building Exhibition in English).
The Flaktürme will get a new name when it’s fully transformed into the renewable energy plant in 2013: Energiebunker.
Concept design for the power plant. (Image: IBA Hamburg)
Spiegel Online International provides the local perspective of the project from earlier this year:
By homing in on the Hamburg district of Wilhelmsburg, the IBA team wants to provide a small-scale showcase to demonstrate what a sustainable cityscape could look like.
“We are doing something new, bringing energy production into the center of the urban environment.” Karsten Wessel, coordinator of the IBA’s Cities and Climate Change project, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “In Germany we already have settlements which are 100 percent self sufficient when it comes to energy, but they are mostly rural.”
[...]
Still, the bunker project has met with a mixed reaction from locals. Margaret Mackert who is creating a documentation center about the flak tower, said the site is significant and its history must be preserved. “For older people who were children during the war, the bunker is mostly seen in a good light, as offering protection. Younger people see it as an ugly and threatening memorial — but they know it is important that it stays.”
In addition to being a power plant, the building will also feature a cafe and museum about the building and the local area, TreeHugger reports.
Comments (36)
Sign In To Post Comments! Sign In
Popular Stories
Paper Details Obama Admin’s Alleged Secret Note Sent to Iran: If Israel Attacks, We Won’t Get Involved 575 Comments
‘Made Up Religion’: TV Historian Enrages Muslims, Receives Threats After Producing UK Documentary Questioning Islam’s Beginnings 404 Comments
This Is the Creationists‘ Response to Scientist Bill Nye’s Viral Pro-Evolution Video Claiming They Harm Children 402 Comments
Roseanne Barr: Most Billionaires ‘Violent Pedophiles’ & ‘Heartless’ Cocaine Addicts 372 Comments
President Obama Issues Major ‘Green Energy’ Executive Order 340 Comments
Faith
- This Is the Creationists‘ Response to Scientist Bill Nye’s Viral Pro-Evolution Video Claiming They Harm Children 402 Comments
Pakistani Muslim Cleric Accused of Framing Disabled Christian Girl in Koran-Burning Case Read More- ‘Made Up Religion’: TV Historian Enrages Muslims, Receives Threats After Producing UK Documentary Questioning Islam’s Beginnings 404 Comments
Meet the Controversial German Imam Accused of Brutally Beating His Wife & Pushing Sharia Law Read More
‘Self-Proclaimed Messiah’ & Unification Church Leader the Rev. Sun Myung Moon Has Died — Here’s His Life Story Read More
Business
- President Obama Issues Major ‘Green Energy’ Executive Order 340 Comments
- Germany’s Upcoming Court Ruling Will be Huge for the EU Read More
Ford Looks to Beat Toyota for Best-Selling Car in 2012 With This Model 150 Comments
Bernanke & QE3: Here’s What You Need to Know Read More- ‘Extortion’: Why Did the Labor Department ‘Drop the Hammer’ on Oregon Farmers? 302 Comments
Technology
- This Is the Creationists‘ Response to Scientist Bill Nye’s Viral Pro-Evolution Video Claiming They Harm Children 402 Comments
‘TaserDrone’: Hackers Weaponize Quadcopter With Actual ‘Shocking’ Technology Read More
Ever Heard of the Wild ‘Burning Man’ Festival in the Middle of the Nev. Desert? Here’s Your Primer Read More
Stanford Develops Technology ‘Better Than Steroids’ for Athlete Recovery Read More
Have You Pretended to Know What ‘the Cloud’ Is? You’re Not Alone Read More
Submitting your tip... please wait!
PAUL GULLO
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 5:55ami can make more power than that joke of a government project with 1/10 the money, but what does money matter anyway, what a joke, 3000 housholds bfd, is this some kind of joke.
Report Post »teamarcheson
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 11:23amThe Germans build things to last don’t they. The bunker was so well made it cost too much to be torn down. Solar shingles do not work very well that far north. Germany is on same parallel to Hudson’s Bay and is too close to the Arctic Circle for solar shingles to work efficiently. The German’s know this so why?
Report Post »idarusskie
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 11:20pmIts also one of the main reason they lost WWII. No oil. Still they have no energy policy that will give them security.
Report Post »chasbronson
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 11:08pmMy question is how much is this thing going to cost the American taxpayer? We seem to get the bill for everything else.
Report Post »Armyof One
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 10:58pmHow cool of a house would that have made?!!!!
Your own giant bunker home, complete with flak towers and 6′ walls of defy! I bet a swimming pool could go inside, right about….there. Can you say ultimate beer fest?
Report Post »thegreatcarnac
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 9:43pmThe Germans are extremely intelligent and will use this bunker in ways we have not imagined to produce electicity. The fact that it was built by WWII Germans should make no difference. The Germans in WWII were simply fighting for their country as we were ours.They were not all monsters like our propaganda machines always paint them. There was a world of difference between the regular Wehrmacht who fought for Germany and the fools who ran the concentration camps.
Report Post »LeftyLieDetector
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 10:38pmJust fighting for their country? You mean fighting for their country that attacked and murdered millions on a whim? The same country that murdered Jews, minorities and other “undesirables” like they were moving trash to the corner? You are one sick puppy, you ridiculous dolt.
Report Post »JohnnyPatriot1
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 9:48am@LEFTYLIEDETECTOR
He’s right. The german people weren’t any different then those of the United States. My family was split during the war…I lost two great uncles for the U.S. and one for Germany. You’ve fallen into the propaganda and you need to do your research. Ever heard of Rheinwiesenlager? It was the name given to the death camps Eisenhower had set up for the german civilians at the end of the war. 1.7 million old men women and children starved to death under orders of our ‘great general’. Even after Bradley ordered them set free Eisenhower had it countermanded and ordered no food or shelter to be given.
And then what about our great allies? Stalin, who murdered near 70 million ofhis own people, and Mao Tse-Tung who murdered 45 million in the ‘great leep forward’ and over 120 million overall.
You see lefty…history is written by the victorious. There is never a right and wrong side. It’s those who live and those who die. And was the holocaust all that different from what we did to the native indians? ….of course not. Those in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones!
Report Post »curtisgb
Posted on November 19, 2011 at 7:56amYes. The “Regular” Germans who fought for “Germany” in: Czechoslovakia, Austria, Poland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, France, Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia, Soviet Union and a few more. Trouble is “regular” Germans seemed to have trouble with geography figuring out where “Germany” was. And my family name is Braun.
Report Post »fatjack
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 5:21pmHmmm I bet this would qualify for $800,000,000 stimulus package.
Report Post »bankerpapaw
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 4:50pmI wonder how it would go over if they made a synagogue out of it? It would be sweet justice.
Report Post »Lateris
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 4:58pmThat’s an awesome idea. Some G-d is not done with retribution yet.
Report Post »UrbanCombatSurvivor
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 7:39pmSo, your response to the German people in this town doing something positive is to…attack them?
Report Post »LeftyLieDetector
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 10:39pmYes! Attack them. Germans are evil in their hearts and we all know their support for Saddam and other terrorists the world over.
Report Post »Nick Rizzuto
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 4:49pmAlternate Headline: Monument to state social and economic engineering to be replaced by monument to state social and economic engineering.
Report Post »brotherjohn
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 4:46pmKind of reminds me of the idea of using an old toilet as a planter, and just as attractive.
Report Post »inferno
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 4:45pmYou could have fooled me. I thought at first I was looking at a building in a Detroit neighborhood, then I realized there was no grafitti !
Report Post »Marengo Ohio Patriot
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 4:31pmIf it does not pan out, the still have a perfectly working bunker
Report Post »DoctorBob
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 4:08pmSort of like beating swords into plowshares. I like the idea! But I seriously doubt those power figures from such a small footprint on Earth. 110 KWh from the rooftop? I don’t think so! Not with anything even approaching today’s technology. They’re going to need a MUCH larger collection area to produce anything approaching those power numbers. And they’re going to need to fill the interior of the building with storage batteries to hold the power for use at night or during cloudy weather. It would probably take every battery in Germany to do that! Also, what happened to the road in front of the building? Who was disrupted when they had to re-route the road? Inquiring minds would like to know.
Report Post »IMAWAKENOW
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 4:51pmI agree with Bob, there is nothing approaching what would be needed in the artist rendering. Looks like another union propaganda boondogle.
Report Post »Ironeagle
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 3:43pmOK, so it’s making lemonaide out of lemons.
Report Post »cntrlfrk
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 4:43pm‘
You know what they say, if life doesn’t give you sugar and water, your lemonade is gonna suck too…
‘
Report Post »ZaphodsPlanet
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 3:37pmOminous looking structure isn’t it? I also think it should be preserved “as is”….. as a reminder to never forget the atrocities that took place in WWII. Doing what they’re doing somehow seems wrong, but it’s their country so all I can do is whine a little bit about it here. :)
Report Post »UrbanCombatSurvivor
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 7:43pmSo, in your estimation, the German people should forever be whipped for something that happened almost a century ago?
Did you ever ask yourself why if about 4.5 million jews were killed by Hitler, but 26 million were killed by Stalin, yet Germany is the one everyone knows all about?
Report Post »LeftyLieDetector
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 10:42pmGermans and Russians should be whipped forever, especially if that makes you feel better or at least more politically correct. Both countries suck pretty bad.
Almost a century ago? Time to whip out that calculator, monkey brains. It was a bit more recent than a century ago and Germany has been supporting every evil regime of the world since then. Just ask Iran’s Mullahs and Saddam Hussein (for starters).
Report Post »sWampy
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 3:26pmWood chips and bio methane are ok, solar is a loss leader, takes more resources to make the solar cells than they produce over their useful life. They should really be looking at some of the new technology that takes the wood chips and other waste and turns them into synthetic oil for around $20 a barrel that can be burned cleanly while allowing the co2 to all be captured for other uses. The real solution to the worlds current energy crisis if there was actually an energy crisis.
Report Post »JRook
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 3:48pmSolar is a loss leader because the US was too busy wasting time and money on a useless intervention in Iraq. We put a man on the moon in 10 years without 90% of the technology existing at the time it was first set as a goal. The federal government should have invested in solar technology to improve its efficiency and lower its cost. Then it could have licensed the technology to willing companies to fund future technologies.
Report Post »Chuck Stein
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 5:34pmA good argument can be made for methanol instead of synthetic gasoline. Methanol is easilly made from natural gas, it has less emissions than gasoline. Its energy content is only half of gasoline, but in an urban environment, that is not such a problem.
Report Post »wbalzley
Posted on November 16, 2011 at 2:43amPersonally, I am interested in either Butanol or some form of Hydrogen fuel myself
Report Post »OniKaze
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 3:04pm@11:11
I agree, but I think it should be left “as-is” because of it’s historic value. WWII was the “greatest” war of human history. I think we should preserve as much of that as possible, less we forget…
Report Post »OhioRifleman
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 3:45pmYou didn’t get the memo from Achmadinejad? Half of WW2 is a false premise, there was no annihilation of Jews, and the United States is the Great Satan.
//ENDSARC//
I agree with you on the historical value, but at least it is being used for a good purpose, not by a rebuilt schutzstaffel.
Report Post »JimmyP
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 8:26pmAsk the next kid you see with droopy drawers if he thinks the tower should remain so we never forget what happened in WWII. Good Idea (sarcasm font used)
Report Post »PCA
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 2:45pmThe towers were primary anti-aircraft gun emplacements each supported by a radar installation. They contained ammo bunkers, a hospital ward, fire direction center, communication center living quarters for the gun crews and an air raid shelter.
Report Post »CEM
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 6:04pmExactly! I hope more folks read your post, since “Nazi Bunker” is a little over-inflated — the translation from German is actually “Flak Towers”. Still found in many larger German cities, they were defensive structures. Hamburg, an important port city, experienced some intense fire-bombing raids during the war after all. Just like the massive, reinforced concrete U-boat pens along the French coast, they’re still around largely because of the restrictive cost to demolish them.
Report Post »11:11
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 2:44pmdon’t know about you but that is bad ju-ju, i think they should keep it vacant
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on November 15, 2011 at 2:35pmGermany has no natural oil… which the Economic reason for Expansion & WWII. Thus, in the event of World Chaos, Germany needs an alternate form of Energy!
Report Post »