Airport Dreamscape

On December 16,1999 the Spanish government announced expansion plans for Madrid Barajas Airport. International conferences, business travel and tourism sponsored or held in Madrid in the past decade have increased fourfold. In December 2003, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar cut the ribbon, opening the new airport one year earlier than planned. It seemed that the people of Madrid could not wait any longer. They were truly eager to see and use this dreamlike airport.

This is an airport of beauty and comfort boasting the highest check-in efficiency.

This is also an airport with the lowest energy consumption and maintenance cost.

English architect Richard Rogers and many other world-class airport designers, architects, structure engineers, mechanical engineers, HVAC engineers, energy and environment experts had made the dream of Madrid's people come true.

The project consisted 700,000m² of new terminal buildings, two new runways and support facilities cost 4.4 billion Euros in all. This has made the airport located in the 16 km east of Madrid one of the largest aviation centers in Europe. Europe's other three large aviation centers are in Paris, Frankfurt and London.

Sunshine, Power, Cooling

Where does the greatest charm lie in this amazing 700,000m² Terminal Building?

The sun through the huge glass dome shines on every corner in the New Terminal Building, replacing many electric bulbs and bringing warmth in winter.

In summer the air conditioning is driven by the waste heat from natural gas power generators at the airport and uses zero-pollution refrigerant agent (LiBr+water) .

A Madrid Airport energy company called for a global bidding process and selected 6 BROAD mega-sized non-electric chillers only.

Why BROAD? BROAD chiller's COP
(cooling coefficient performance) tops that of all other manufacturers in the world.

Unconventional Spanish HAVC Engineers

BROAD products are operating in more than 30 countries today. When service engineers in those countries get together, they may discuss project design approaches unique to their respective country. As years have passed, BROAD engineers have drawn a unanimous conclusion as follows: South Asian project designs are simple with less automation devices, regardless of operation cost; Americans design very practically, for automation(it should be termed informatization)'s sake they do not care about the cost at all, on the other hand, cooling water pipes are not usually painted, without wasting even one additional dollar; Germans focus on long life design and even use stainless steel for cooling water pipes; However, Spaniards are always trying to be unique.

If you look at Spanish project design at first glance, you will notice — some complex points are too simple — what can not be done is asked to be done — what should not be done is done with too much money or time — yet if you have learned that inside out, you will be surprised at the fact that Spanish engineers are serious perfectionists! They never care what designers have done before them nor what other countries have implemented, what they care about is the perfection they themselves have envisioned in their own imaginations.

Let us take an air conditioning project for example, Spanish HAVC engineers always rack their brains to determine energy quality, invest in energy efficiency (including waste heat) at all cost and pursue precision temperature control, which seems almost impractical. Piping and control systems are always designed to be different, not even two similar systems can be found (while most American air conditioning projects are the same).

Regardless, their drive for perfection has been somewhat achieved. Not even one air conditioning projects we mentioned, designed by a Spanish HAVC engineers, has failed to achieve their projected goals, not even one project has failed to save energy and reduce operating costs. These projects, like Madrid Barajas Airport roof, are magnificent and meticulously done.