Circl Amsterdam

The innovative and circular ABN AMRO building Circl at Gustav Mahlerplein in Amsterdam is the first building worldwide with a direct voltage infrastructure, or DC grid. "This innovative DC installation opens the way to a new market with sustainable DC powered offices," said Rob Kuipers, Product & Contract Manager Facility Management at the bank. "In particular, the use of fewer inverters in this system fits into our circular thinking."

Circl's DC grid operates a 350V DC distribution system with components developed by the company Direct Current BV. Michiel Arnoldy, Commercial Director of Direct Current BV, is convinced that DC voltage is the future: "We already live in a DC world without realizing it. Just think about our computers and LED lighting. Some 80% of what we use in the home is based on DC voltage. By building DC-based networks, the energy world will be able to become more sustainable faster and we will arrive at a more reliable, affordable and efficient energy grid."

100 % recyclable
The more than 500 solar panels on the Circl building are connected directly to the DC grid via DC microconverters. The air management system is also connected to the DC grid. "Compared to existing AC installations, there is significant resource and energy savings with DC," says Rob Kuipers. "Another criterion for Circl is to apply as many used materials as possible. That's where Nilar's batteries came in. Through Direct Current BV we came to Indutecc turn to for local energy storage. The batteries of Nilar are environmentally friendly and 100% recyclable, which fits perfectly with our basic circular idea." In addition, Nilar batteries are "Safer than Safe" due to its unique bipolar NiMH construction. This makes a large-scale Nilar system ideally suited for safe indoor installation.

The Circl building will house 60kWh of storage capacity distributed over three Nilarcabinets of 20kWh each. These are connected directly to Circl's DC grid via a DC/DC converter from Direct Current, which prevents conversion losses from AC to DC and is the most efficient way of working.

Photos of this project