Bohumil Lhota, the creator of the eco-friendly "Rotating House," has become the outright winner of the prestigious E.ON Energy Globe Award CZ 2012.
The key trophy, an MJ Compact 05 filling station, was presented to him by Jiří Slíva, member of the board of MOTOR JIKOV Strojírenská a.s.
In 2011, MOTOR JIKOV was awarded the Czech eco-Oscar, securing 1st place in the E.ON Energy Globe Award CZ, which focuses on energy-saving projects, with their compressed natural gas (CNG) filling station for small and medium consumers. Developed and manufactured by us, the CNG filling station dominated the Air category two years ago and became one of the main prizes in the following year's competition.
This year's winners have been announced. Among 165 competing projects, DIY enthusiast Bohumil Lhota from Zásada – Velké Hamry (Jizera Mountains) – swept all categories: Earth, Fire, Water, Air, Youth, Municipality, and DIY.
At the ceremonial presentation, Ing. Jiří Slíva, board member of MOTOR JIKOV Group a.s., Zdeněk Filip, E.ON Energy Globe Award CZ team, Ing. Václav Král, CNG project manager at MOTOR JIKOV Strojírenská a.s., Bohumil Lhota, the absolute winner of E.ON Energy Globe Award CZ 2012, Matěj Hron, chairman of the board of Království železnic.
For twenty years, he built his house under extreme conditions. The house can be vertically embedded into the ground during winter and, thanks to a clever mechanism, continuously rotates to follow the sun in summer. It maximizes solar energy use, earth’s insulation properties, and new materials such as makrolon, which allows light to pass through and captures heat from sunlight. Alongside Škoda Citigo CNG Green Tec powered by compressed natural gas, and with support from MOTOR JIKOV Group a.s., Bohumil Lhota received an MJ Compact 05 CNG refueling station, capable of fueling up to two vehicles.
"I must admit, I never expected to win anything. A hare or a pheasant at a ball, yes. But succeeding in such a prestigious competition like the E.ON Energy Globe Award, among so many good projects, I never dreamed of," the cheerful DIY enthusiast smiled happily during the award ceremony. "This is an incredible experience for me. As a lifelong tech enthusiast, I follow CNG technologies closely. I’m glad we have pioneers here, and thanks to your technologies, we are catching up with countries where compressed natural gas is common. I believe this is the future of transportation. Natural gas is now practically in every household. I am excited about motorists being mostly self-sufficient and independent with small refueling stations and CNG vehicles. It just needs more cars and more stations," he added with a humorous note, still not entirely satisfied with his house.
The member of MOTOR JIKOV Strojírenská a.s., Jiří Slíva, who decided the winner along with the public votes, expressed his pleasure: "I am truly pleased that Mr. Bohumil Lhota is the absolute winner. His eco-house is genuinely unique, a highly sophisticated project with a significant ecological impact, illustrating many paths to energy-efficient living. He was visibly delighted with our filling station and, as an enthusiast and tech expert, he discussed our activities in developing and producing eco-technologies with great admiration."
The eco-house of Bohumil Lhota, or rather its scaled functional model, is now on display at the Království železnic in Prague’s Smíchov, where the largest model railway layout in the country and Central Europe is being built.
The fifth edition of the E.ON Energy Globe Award CZ, which recognizes projects focused on energy savings and environmental protection, has already been launched. The deadline for project submissions in categories such as Municipality, DIY, Company, Youth, and Product Innovation is May 17.
