SustainHuts presents its progress at mid-term period

Pedro Casero, SustainHuts coordinator, presented the progress of the project at its mid-term development to several representatives of mountaineering federations, Aragon Government and Parc National des Pyrénées. The talk and the subsequent debate were useful to analyse and encourage the results replicability to other European regions.

Considering that the replicability of results is one of the main aspects of SustainHuts project, a talk about the Project was organized last October 25^th in Peña Guara mountaineering club headquarters (Huesca). The public was composed of mountaineering federations from Catalonia, Aragon, Andorra and France as well as representatives from Aragon Government and Parc National des Pyrénées, the entity which manages Pyrenees in its French face.

The day, framed within the activities proposed to disseminate the project status at the half of its development, was useful to show the main objectives, the huts involved, the solutions proposed and the current status of each hut and the project in general. In addition, the proposal to install a storage system based on hydrogen in Bachimaña hut was presented, awaking the interest between the attendees due to its innovative character and the technical challenges which it implies.

After the middle of the project, 21 technologies have been identified for the huts which are starting the demo period during this year (Estós, Lizara, Bachimaña, Llauset and Torino), having installed at least a part of the technologies proposed (technologies are completely installed in Lizara and Torino huts) and monitoring the improvements achieved and the impact of each technologies to the total amount of emissions avoided in the huts.

Lizara hut is actually within the monitoring period after the installation of all the technologies proposed, such as PV panels, a new inverter which can turn on the diesel generators automatically, batteries and a thermo-chimney that consumes local wood. Regarding Estós hut, it has been improved by means of a new inverter which allows for charging batteries using the energy generated by the hydro-turbine, a new pellets stove and new batteries, having been programmed the enlargement of the PV arrays, the installation of innovative insulation and the improvement of the turbine for a better exploitation of the hydro resource.

Related to Llauset and Bachimaña, the first one will have a new pellet stove, innovative insulation and an enlargement of the PV arrays and, the second one, a better exploitation of the hydro resource through the electrification of the heat system (replacing the diesel heaters for electrical ones and taking advantage of the electricity generated by the hydro turbine), the improvement of the insulation and a seasonal storage system based on hydrogen. Finally, regarding Torino hut, where the main problems are related to the water management a water treatment plant has been installed, together with an innovative plant which recovers water and snow from the roofs and new PV panels.

After the presentation, performed by Pedro Casero, head of Innovation Department of Hydrogen Aragon Foundation and project coordinator, a debate among the attendees were started, identifying similarities, difficulties and characteristics which might be reproduced in other locations, raising the impact of SustainHuts beyond the involved huts and opening the door to the replicability of the solutions in other European huts.