When the Hagelauer compound in the heart of Siegen was acquired in 2010, the renovation of the grand villa in Sandstrasse, Siegen’s artery, started to revive the villa within the requirements of monumental protection. The works are now in their 5th year (in words: in the fifth year) and as a result you will be able to marvel at one of Siegen’s top prominent buildings in 2015.

An exposed location, excellent level of awareness and building structure have led this building to be chosen as a demonstration / field test in the context of the BMBF funded Callux project. In cooperation with Siegen’s public utility company (SVB) in 2012 a pilot facility was installed, which provides hydrogen (H2) from city gas (CH4), which is converted to electricity and heating (and water) by a fuel cell (PEM-FC) to provide for the building.

Since the villa was meant to be a representative flagship for Zoz group – which might be outdated because of the exorbitantly long construction period – the cellar was upgraded to a high-tech showroom of sorts (2012) and furthermore, in 2013 a 12 ton heavy demonstrator made from FuturBeton, a super material from the house of Zoz was installed to substitute the original balustrade which was lost in the war. And in 2014 a 4.5 meter long spire, in which Zentallium^® is used – another super material from the house of Zoz, was attached to the revived little tower.

Due to the terrible and repeatedly delayed building time, basically caused by discrepancies and contrasting opinions in the interplay with monumental protection authorities, the system could not be taken into in operation effectively in 2012 and not until 2014, which almost lead the whole PEMFC endeavor to collapse. At this point we regret particularly the temporal delay, from which especially the public utility provider suffered and suffers. That was never our intention and unfortunately that was not within what we could decide. 5 years of construction time by itself already cost a fortune!