Sports stadiums advance in sustainable development with ABB

Smart building technology and innovative electrification solutions are helping to transform sports stadiums into connected and energy efficient places.

Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia

Almost half of the planet saw how the French national team player Kylian Mbappe scored the fourth goal of his team, ruling in favor of France the World Cup final against Croatia. With the final score of 4-2, France won its second World Cup. Fans who attended the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow, Russia, and the viewers did not miss a single detail of the final thanks to the optimal lighting of the stadium, regulated with the ABB KNX i-bus system.

This historic stadium, which hosted the 1980 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Champions League final, is one of the many stadiums in the world that rely on ABB technology to illuminate their sporting events with efficient use of the Energy.

Thousands of people go to the stadiums, spaces that can play a really important role in laying the foundations of sustainability. The stadiums are adopting increasingly sustainable ways of functioning, for example, seeking efficient energy consumption and using renewable energy sources. Thanks to ABB's offers, which encompass intelligent electrification and control solutions, places like Luzhniki Stadium are now more sustainable.

The remodeling of the Luzhniki for the World Cup has included the ABB KNX i-bus system. While controlling the lighting of the entire stadium, the ABB system uses energy saving algorithms that assess the time of day, natural light and the total load on the electricity grid. In this way, considerable energy savings are achieved and the way towards an environmentally friendly future is being prepared.

In Norway, the stadium roof of the Odd football team, the Skagerak Arena, in Skien, has 5,700 square meters of solar modules with a nominal potential of 800 kWp. ABB has facilitated the storage of energy in batteries and the energy management system, which guarantee the maximum use of renewable energy, even in low light.

Figure 1. Skagerak Arena in Skien, Norway

The photovoltaic system not only feeds the lights that illuminate the home games of the equipment, but also supplies the neighborhood with locally produced electricity. In addition, ABB technology is in perfect harmony with the purpose of the Odd club to be the greenest football team in Europe and with the objective of Skagerak Energi, the club's main collaborator in this field, to create an energy laboratory .

On the other hand, ABB technology is also used in the Tissot Arena, which has the largest solar power plant present in any stadium in the world. The stadium is located in the Swiss town of Biel. This huge sports complex has an added roof that has a space of about 16,500 square meters for solar modules, the equivalent of two football fields. In addition, this project serves as a model to show the use of solar energy throughout Switzerland. The annual energy production of the plant is equivalent to the consumption of about 500 average households in Switzerland.

Figure 2. Tissot Arena in Biel, Switzerland

ABB's energy management technology, which includes switchgear and modular AirTuk distribution boards, has helped the international cricket stadium and sports complex Ekana, in India, to host international meetings again after an interval of two decades. In South Asia, the love for cricket is huge. It is a sport that uses technologies that consume a lot of energy to make arbitral decisions by providing real-time data obtained with cameras in the field, huge screens distributed throughout the stadium and strategically placed sensors. ABB's energy management technology allows operators to maintain a continuous and reliable supply of energy and, at the same time, guarantees greater energy savings in matches.

ABB has also helped create a "smart" football stadium for FK Austria in Vienna. Generali Arena has adopted the latest in smart building technology and energy efficient distribution. ABB has supplied several elements, including the KNX system, thanks to which it is possible to network all the lighting, shadow, heating, air conditioning and ventilation components of the stadium, which guarantees maximum energy savings.

In addition, ABB has also provided dry type transformers, which comply with the latest energy efficiency standards in the European Union. Instead of oil, these transformers use a resin encapsulation technology developed by ABB. ABB's intelligent solutions are helping Generali Arena to become Austria's first sustainable football stadium.

Figure 3. Generali Arena in Vienna, Austria