Presentation of the ZEM project at the meeting “Decarbonising Antartica Discussion Forum”.

On Tuesday 20 February 2024, the Zaragoza Defence University Centre (CUD) presented the ZEM (Life Zero Energy Mod) project at the “Decarbonising Antarctica Discussion Forum” meeting.

The meeting, which lasted 1 hour and 30 minutes, was attended by 10 representatives from the following entities and countries:

Korean Polar Institute
British Antarctic Survey
International Polar Foundation
Antarctica New Zealand
Spanish Polar Committee

The presentation of the ZEM project generated great interest among the attendees. The representative of the Spanish Polar Committee (SPC), Antonio Quesada, mentioned ZEM as one of the lines of work of the Spanish Polar Committee for Antarctica.

The ZEM project aims to develop a habitable module that is completely self-sufficient in terms of energy and emissions.

Our partners present the ZERO ENERGYMOD project on the ground. Discover the evolution of the construction of this easy to install and transport living space, based on the PassivHaus standard that incorporates renewable energy sources and hydrogen storage.

Each of our partners, ARPA, CUDZ, BHAUS and the Aragon Hydrogen Foundation accompany you on this journey through the ZERO ENERGYMOD facilities while explaining how this model will be useful in the construction of custom-designed logistics solutions for European armed forces bases, as well as all types of civilian organisations in peace missions, development and international cooperation, NGOs, and any public or private company or ministry that needs to develop its activity in remote areas.

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The International Defense Course in Jaca analyzes and discusses a selection of factors that act as drivers of change in the field of security and defense. The program started with a session dedicated to the Spanish rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, and another to analyze the evolution of the defense awareness of the Spanish society that these thirty courses have witnessed.

The course will continue with three sessions each dedicated to analyzing how three relevant factors affect the evolution of security and defense. The first of these will be devoted to energy. It will discuss the geopolitics of hydrocarbons
of hydrocarbons, the challenges of the transition and intensive use of new energy sources, and the impact of rare earths and other critical minerals on international security.
Our partner CUDZ (Centro Universitario de la Defensa – Zaragoza) participated in this conference, represented by Beatriz Rodríguez Soria – Professor of the Centro Universitario de la Defensa. During her speech, she presented the project ZERO ENERGYMOD – Modular, demountable and energetically self-sufficient construction for military bases. She highlighted the objectives of the project, the characteristics of its design PASSIVMOD, as well as the process of installation, assembly and the importance of the hydrogen cycle to achieve the objectives of the project.

APTIE “Association for the Promotion of Strategic Technologies and Industries” is organising the 3rd Congress on Renewable Energies in Defence Installations with the aim of gaining greater knowledge of the different systems for generating these energies, as well as their capacities and problems.

Given the costs of acquisition, maintenance and problematic of the equipment and the importance of the problems of maintenance and agility in the management of the equipment and systems with known obsolescence, we consider interesting to deepen in the subject of outsourcing the ownership, management and maintenance of the facilities for the generation of electrical energy, air conditioning and water ASC.

The evolution and permanent improvement of the efficiency of the equipment, together with the need for specialised maintenance and life cycle management, make this form of management an interesting alternative, which, however, needs to be analysed from the point of view of the legal procedures for contracting with the State.

During this Congress, our colleague Beatriz Rodriguez Soria, Dr. Industrial Engineer and Professor at the Centro Universitario de la Defensa in Zaragoza, presented the objectives and progress of the ZeroEnergyMod project.

More than 150 experts from 29 European countries, as well as different institutions and organisations participated in the fifth conference of the third phase of the Consultation Forum for Sustainable Energy in the Defence and Security Sector (CF SEDSS III) in Prague, reaffirming the Consultation Forum’s status as the largest European defence energy community.

The European Defence Agency (EDA) organised the fifth CF SEDSS III conference from 30 November to 1 December 2022 under the auspices of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU). It was hosted by the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic. During the conference, the forum showed the way ahead to support the defence energy transition, ranging from behavioural change models to climate change proofing and energy resilience. The forum’s output also contributed to implementing broader EU actions, including the EU’s Climate Change and Defence Roadmap, Member States’ defence strategies for climate change adaptability, the EU’s offshore energy strategy, and the Action Plan on Military Mobility.

The conference was attended by our colleague Adeline Rezeau from the Centro Universitario de Defensa en Zaragoza (CUZD) and our colleague Jesús Montero representing our partner Equipos Móbiles de Campaña (ARPA). Both were in charge of presenting our project ZEROENERGYMOD within the working group 1 “Energy Efficiency and Building Performance”.

The General Military Academy is the higher education centre of the Spanish Army (ET) and is based in the city of Zaragoza. Its facilities are home to the Defence University Centre (CUZD), attached to the University of Zaragoza, where future Army and Civil Guard officers study the subjects of their degree courses. One of the partners in the project, thanks to which we have set up the DEMO at the San Jorge Base.
Once its construction has been completed, the Sappers Battalion has installed its offices there.

On 11th April all project partners met to supervise the correct installation of the prototype habitable module at the San Jorge Base. This easy to install and transport space, based on the PassivHaus standard, incorporates renewable energy sources. This will achieve an 85% reduction in energy consumption compared to the solutions currently used. This module will be transported for use by the Army’s Antarctic Campaign. The Antarctic Campaign is carried out annually at the Spanish Antarctic Base “Gabriel de Castilla”, located on Deception Island (South Shetland Islands Archipelago) and in other places in the Antarctic territory to be determined, all in support of the Ministry of Science and Innovation and the Spanish Polar Committee (SPC) for the development of Antarctic research.

The main objective of the Spanish Passivhaus Conference, organised by PEP annually, is to provide a meeting forum for the whole construction sector, technicians, administration, manufacturers and in general all the agents involved in the whole process of design, promotion, construction and use of buildings.

The authors’ paper was presented. Beatriz Rodríguez Soria and Miguel Ángel García García from CUD and Carlos Navarro Gutiérrez from BHAUS, all of them members of our consortium. The work presented detected the need to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels as well as CO2 emissions in the military Bases and Barracks of the European Armed Forces (BAEs) and shows how the ZERO ENERGYMOD project of the LIFE funding programme is an optimal solution.

As a result of applying the design conditions, a design has been developed based on 20-foot containers with a rigid stackable chassis structure, modified with respect to those currently available in order to avoid thermal bridges. The HIGH CUBE model has been selected to have a false ceiling.

It has a base insulation in the removable panels of the chassis of 10 cm of high density wool and double tongue and groove. On the inside, another layer of the same panels has been installed and on the outside, 30 cm thick skins of high density wool with an exterior stainless steel finish.

You can read more about their work here.

On Friday 12th November, the Zaragoza Conference Centre hosted the second edition of the Aragonese Building Gala, organised by the Official Association of Quantity Surveyors and Technical Architects of the Aragonese capital and the rest of the building industry. At the event, the awards for this important sector were presented. The awards were based on three main themes: sustainability, innovation and refurbishment as the major needs of our cities. The award for the best innovation project applied to building went to LIFE ZERO ENERGYMOD, our project financed by the European LIFE programme.

This award is a great satisfaction for the consortium and especially for BHAUS as it recognises the effort made in the design of this living space with minimum energy consumption in any location and climate. The fact that all the entities participating in the consortium are Aragonese also shows the region’s capacity to carry out innovative projects that combine energy management and habitability. The germ of the project idea arose from the collaboration that CUD and FHa were carrying out to improve habitability and energy management at the Gabriel de Castilla Antarctic base. This idea was developed by BHAUS applying PassivHaus standards to achieve minimum energy consumption, and finally ARPA contributed its proven experience in the construction of mobile equipment, as well as its capacity for deployment in any location.
The president of the Zaragoza Association of Technical Architects, Rafael Gracia, highlighted during the gala: “the building sector is at a very exciting time, as users are beginning to be aware of the great benefits that new homes have and it is also expected that the aid from European funds will greatly boost the rehabilitation of buildings”.
If you want to know more about this project, we encourage you to visit their website

On May 22nd, the three partners of the project, the Aragon Hydrogen Foundation, the architectural firm B-Haus and the University Centre of Defence of Zaragoza (CUDZ) met at the facilities of the also partner, ARPA in Zaragoza. During the meeting, we had the opportunity to share impressions on the evolution of the initiative. We also had the opportunity to visit the modules. On the one hand, the ENERMOD module (energy module that supplies renewable energies and energy storage by means of batteries and hydrogen). And on the other, the PASSIVMOD (habitable module designed under PassivHaus standards). Both are the proposal to be integrated in the final module. The latter is currently in the construction phase.

During the day, it was demonstrated how the team’s efforts had been focused on the construction of these modules. And the work forecast for the coming months was concluded. In which, the month of August stands out. This is a key month as the equipment will be tested at ARPA.

Finally, in September, the project will be taken to the field to install the module in what will be the first demo: the facilities of the Army’s XXII Sapper Brigade, in Zaragoza.