SIEMENS

Skolkovo is Russia’s answer to Silicon Valley. The new Skolkovo Innovation Center is being built on a 380-hectare site near Moscow. The Russian government is supporting the project with around €3 billion in funding. Russian scientists, who have an excellent reputation in fields such as mathematics and physics, will work here with colleagues from around the world on IT systems, biotechnology, energy efficiency, medical and nuclear technologies, and aerospace systems. Foreign companies and startups at the center will enjoy tax-exempt status for up to ten years as they quickly incorporate the knowledge they gain into new products and services. The Skolkovo Foundation, which is headed by Viktor Vekselberg, will cover up to 50 percent of the costs of individual projects.

Siemens entered into a strategic partnership with Skolkovo in 2010 and plans to invest around €40 million in a research and development center at the Skolkovo site that will employ up to 150 scientists. “Siemens was the first international company that decided to establish a development center here,” says Alexander Averianov, the Siemens Project Manager for Skolkovo. “We want to conduct projects in practically all of the five Skolkovo topic areas, especially energy efficiency, information technology, and nuclear medicine.” Siemens researchers are in fact already working with Russian and German scientists on the development of new micro-wave generators.

In other words, Skolkovo is becoming a reality – even though excavators and cranes are still very much in evidence on the site. A new university, an industrial park, office buildings, and facilities for accommodating guests and 21,000 residents probably won’t be completed until 2015. However, the center’s trademark, the Hypercube, was officially opened in September 2012. The futuristic building, which was designed by architect Boris Bernaskoni, houses a conference center, startup companies, and offices for partner companies such as Siemens, IBM, and Cisco.

The structure boasts green technology, including solar cells that cover a portion of the building’s electricity demand. The facility’s water is supplied by rain and an artesian well. Heating comes from a district system and 13 bore holes equipped with pumps that bring up heat from geothermal sources. Large windows and light ducts ensure minimal use of artificial light, which is unusual for Russia, where small windows are normally installed in buildings in order to prevent heat losses. However, the Hypercube has convectors that create an insulated curtain of heat that’s kept stable by triple-pane glass.

The Hypercube is controlled by a Siemens building management system that regulates climate control units, lighting, and electricity distribution. The aim here is to make the Hypercube as economical, ecological, ergonomic, and energy-efficient as possible. The building will be one of the first in Russia to receive LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Siemens also contributed to the eye-catching Hypercube facade, which features a 250 square-meter “media wall” that shows promotional films about Skolkovo. The unit is equipped with nearly 60,000 three-tone LEDs from Osram’s Traxon Technologies subsidiary

The Skolkovo Innovation Center will be a model environmental city. For example, no vehicles with combustion engines will be allowed to enter. Residents and visitors will move around on foot, by bike, or in electric vehicles. These vehicles – like the Hypercube, which features state-of-the-art electricity distribution solutions from Siemens – will be part of Russia’s first smart grid. “Siemens has conceived a smart grid that it plans to build in the next few years,” says Averianov. “It involves an energy grid of high, medium, and low-voltage power – all provided by a single source.”

To ensure a reliable supply of electricity for all future residents and companies, two Siemens transformer substations will be installed at the end of 2013. Each will have a capacity of 63 megawatts. “The substations will be built completely underground, which is also a first in Russia,” says Averianov. Siemens will provide the facility with its latest generation of gas-insulated transmission lines, which can safely transport a large amount of electricity underground at low losses. Thanks to their aluminum sleeves, the associated magnetic fields are weak.

“Skolkovo will create an environment in which ideas are transformed into innovative new products,” says Averianov. In other words, it is the perfect venue for the fourth Future Dialogue conference, which will be hosted by Siemens and the Max Planck Society in Russia this year. The event will take place in the Hypercube on April 9 and 10, 2013. The discussions between scientists, economists, and government officials from around the world will focus on the topic of “The Innovation Engine – from Science to Solutions.”