RENVELOPE: Renovation of Knittelfeld vocational school and apprentice house for sustainable energy efficiency

(from right) Director Robert Marchler, Provincial Councillor Werner Amon, Provincial Councillor Ursula Lackner and Director Alexander Krückl at the project presentation in Knittelfeld. © Land Steiermark/Binder

Graz (March 15, 2024). Styria launched an investment offensive for vocational schools last year: By 2027, more than 23 million euros will be invested in the training facilities for apprentices in Feldbach, Graz-St. Peter and Voitsberg. In addition, on March 14, 2024, the Styrian state government also decided to renovate the vocational school and the apprentice house in Knittelfeld. Around 13 million euros will be invested in the thermal refurbishment of the buildings by summer 2025.

The roof, windows and façade will be renovated or replaced in line with sustainability criteria. The project is being implemented as part of the ELENA (European Local Energy Assistance) Styria program. The focus of the renovation is on maximum energy savings and the greatest possible energy generation through the planned PV systems in the new façade. In addition, the electrical installations and parts of the classroom ventilation system are also to be integrated into the façade. This was developed in the RENVELOPE research project under the leadership of the architectural firm Nussmüller.

“With the renovation of the vocational school in Knittelfeld, we are not only investing in the infrastructure for our apprentices, but are also focusing on energy efficiency and making the buildings climate-ready. The school location will benefit from the project – and this multi-million investment will also boost the regional economy. It is a considerable sum that we are investing in vocational schools throughout Styria – but the skilled workers of tomorrow are definitely worth it,” says Provincial Councillor Werner Amon.

“To achieve the climate transition, everyone must pull together. The Province of Styria is setting a good example,” emphasizes Provincial Councillor Ursula Lackner. “We have set ourselves the goal of making the provincial administration climate-neutral by 2030. To this end, we have created a climate fund endowed with 40 million euros and put together an energy efficiency investment package with an additional 47.3 million euros via the ELENA program. This means that a total of more than 85 million euros will flow into investments for a climate-neutral, energy-efficient state administration.”

“We are delighted that this major project is now being implemented at the Knittelfeld site. With the start of the renovation work in July, the vacations will be used to ensure that the pupils’ everyday school life is disrupted as little as possible by the renovation measures,” said Principal Robert Marchler and Principal Alexander Krückl.

About the RENVELOPE research project

The transformation of existing buildings into low-emission, active participants in a climate-neutral, volatile energy system is a challenge, especially in cities, as many buildings are still largely based on decentralized heat supply from fossil fuels. It is therefore important to offer and implement serial solutions for green heating and cooling supply, storage and distribution. The aim of “RENVELOPE – Energy Adaptive Shell” is to develop a cost-efficient, recyclable complete solution for the modernization of existing buildings by conditioning buildings from an outer shell.
The RENVELOPE project is part of Green Energy Lab, a research initiative for sustainable energy solutions and part of the Austrian innovation offensive “Vorzeigeregion Energie” of the Climate and Energy Fund.

About the ELENA program

As part of the “ELENA (European Local Energy Assistance) StyriA” project, the project partners Land Steiermark and Landesimmobiliengesellschaft are implementing an investment program worth EUR 47.3 million under the consortium leadership of Energie Agentur Steiermark. This includes comprehensive energy efficiency measures in public buildings, the construction of building-based PV systems and the installation of charging stations for electric vehicles, with the aim of making a significant contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption.