Society marvels at the spectacles we create, from the CN Tower to the largest tower Burj Dubai. We love our projects and the things we make that let the world know how incredible we are. Talk about ego support.

(from guest blogger Matt Lantz)

But in the polluted atmosphere of Guangzhou  City, which rests in southern China, a new 71 story tower is to be constructed. This claims to be the most energy efficient building in the world.

It is being built in a curve that faces the prevailing winds and at that has been shaped specifically to increase the wind speed and funnel it into incoming turbine ports in the side of the building. The turbines will be located on the mechanical floors of the building, which the Chinese Government stated are to be used as emergency muster floors, which leaves all usable office space intact. The American architects of the building – SOM – claim that the building will be able to create as much energy as it uses.

Many buildings are still being erected with few green features often used as extras, and not included in the primary design stages. In this new Green Tower the cooling system will be using water, rather than large and wasteful heating ducts. The water flows through concrete beams and cool air ominously floats down to the employees through water radiators in the ceiling. By utilizing this design and function SOM said it was able fit in five extra stories of usable office space at little extra cost.

There is considerable use of photovoltaic technology on the frontages of the building. Currently due to cost, they did not cover the building in energy-generating glass, but still made gains where possible. There is also a double glazed wall, that channels hot air upwards towards the mechanical floors. There it’s harnessed for dehumidification.

Given these features amidst some others the building ought to be able to make money within five years according to SOM and the owners. Though SOM says it would have been able to add more self generating power to the building, there are no facilities that allow self-generated power to be fed back into the grid in Guangzhou.

The director of SOM’s East Asia office Ame Englehart said, “This building is so radical it could have only been commissioned in China. The owners are very self-confident and have been prepared to push the design as far as it will go.” Though the design is site specific and cannot be replicated, it does use systems that could likely be utilized in other areas.

To think of one is a building in Elmira, Canada my hometown. The site of Geothermal heating company NextEnergy. It’s commercial building maintains energy consumption levels of 1/15th of a comparable fossil fuel installation. All energy consumption and production can be monitored and modified in real time. The building eliminates the emissions equivalent of 70 cars, making it a 0 emissions building at 25,000 sq. ft.

Though I’m sure we would all like to see more and more of these buildings that incorporate energy-efficiency in the primary stages of the design, it doesn’t seem to be growing at the pace we would like to all see. Construction is a slow to grow industry. And though the recession has shown considerable advances in technology in terms of solar power, and energy consumption, there are massive upfront costs to energy friendly buildings that turn investors and owners away. The key is to spread the word of the long term benefits and paybacks of these energy friendly buildings. Let’s hope that this Pearl stands as a diamond in the rough, and lets investors see the light.

*Information provided by the BBC

Image courtesy of wikipedia.org

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