During renovations, Stavanger, Norway’s third largest municipality, invested 1.7 million euros to install Estonian-made Solarstone solar roofs on five nursing homes.

Romet Roosalu, the CEO of Solarstone, said that the municipality of Stavanger chose the Viljandi manufacturer when renovating nursing homes because the building-integrated solar panel offers a solution to two problems simultaneously. “The roofs of the nursing homes had depreciated and needed to be replaced, but the municipality has also set itself the goal of reducing the climate impact and transitioning to renewable energy,” he said.

The mayor of Stavanger, Sissel Knutsen Hegdal, said the project is a good example of how buildings are modernised during renovation. “During the renovation of the nursing homes, we also used the opportunity to switch to new, future energy types. We plan to continue this with other municipal buildings as well,” Hegdal confirmed to the Norwegian media publication Aftenbladet.

An investment of 1.7 million euros in roofing

Stavanger is Norway’s third most populous municipality after Oslo and Bergen. Building-integrated solar panels manufactured at Solarstone’s Viljandi factory were installed on five nursing homes, which produce an estimated total of 755,000 kWh of electricity per year. This corresponds to the annual energy consumption of 38 average Norwegian homes and helps to save 14.3 tonnes of CO₂ per year. The investment in five buildings’ solar roofs and the construction works will cost the municipality of Stavanger more than 20 million Norwegian kroner, or about 1.7 million euros.

Solarstone‘s Norwegian partners Solintegra and Trefadder ensure that for every kW of electricity produced on the roof, one tree is planted in Norway, which also neutralises the footprint of the solar roof installation. The five Stavanger nursing home projects together equal 883 planted trees. One tree accumulates an average of 220 tons of CO₂ during its lifetime.

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