GREEN SKYSCRAPERS

Renewable Energy Technologies for Sustainable Tall-Buildings

SEMINAR AND TECHNICAL WRITING

Department of Planning and Architecture
NIT Rourkela

Report by: Saumya Rastogi 115AR0014

Under the guidance of: Prof. Nabanita Saha

 CONTENTS

Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................... 3
1.1. What Is a Tall Building? .................................................................................................................... 3
1.2 Green Building .................................................................................................................................... 3
2. SUSTAINABLE SKYSCRAPERS .......................................................................................................... 4
3. RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES ......................................................................................... 4
3.1 Combined Heat and Power (CHP) ...................................................................................................... 4
3.1.1 Method of power generation (CHP)............................................................................................. 4
3.1.2 Characteristics of CHP ................................................................................................................. 5
3.2.3 Case Study : One Angle Square ................................................................................................... 5
3.2 Photovoltaic (PV) panels .................................................................................................................... 6
3.2.1 Case Study: The Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) Lighthouse Tower..................... 7
3.3 Wind Energy ....................................................................................................................................... 8
3.3.1 Case study: World Trade Center, Bahrain. ................................................................................... 8
4.Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................ 10
5. Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................ 11
1. INTRODUCTION
Ever since the birth of skyscraper in the 19th century, the architectural community hasn’t looked back.
However, in the late 20th century, building skyscrapers became a controversial issue among the
architectural profession. The awareness questioned the inability of tall buildings to adapt to the environment
as well started demanding answers to the modern environmental problems caused by it like high energy
consumption for its daily running and maintenance.
With improved technology in building construction and design, it is now the responsibility of architects and
planners that new design criteria and appropriate principles be used to reinvent the skyscraper as something
green, and environment-user friendly.
This paper will explore ways of managing the embodied energy content of a skyscraper in order to, control
its impact on global resources. It also reviews the new generation of progressive green skyscrapers via case
studies, recently completed or under construction, in order to explore how they embraced sustainability and
green building strategies in their design.

1.1. What Is a Tall Building?

There is no universally accepted definition of a “tall building”. Governments around the world
differ in how they define “tall buildings”.
▪ The International Building Code (IBC 2000) and the Building Construction and Safety Code,
NFPA 5000TM-2002,Paragraph 3.3.28.7 of the Life Safety Code®, 2006 edition, define high-rise
buildings as buildings 75 feet or greater in height measured from the lowest level of fire department
vehicle access to the floor of the highest occupiable story.
▪ The Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) proposed that any building with a height of 30m
(nine floors) be categorized as a high rise. This is an increase of 6m from the existing definition
(24m or seven floors).
However, in this report, a ‘tall- building’ shall be understood as a building with a height of 30m and above.

1.2 Green Building

According to World Green Building Council, ‘green’ building is a building that, in its design, construction
or operation, reduces or eliminates negative impacts, and can create positive impacts, on our climate and
natural environment. Green buildings preserve precious natural resources and improve our quality of life.
Two examples of green buildings are in the figures below.

Figure 1 Suzlon Office, Pune. Figure 2 Micro Emission Sun-Moon Mansion, China.
 As per World Green Building Council, there are a number of features which can make a building ‘green’.
These include:

• Efficient use of energy, water and other resources

• Use of renewable energy, such as solar energy
• Pollution and waste reduction measures, and the enabling of re-use and recycling
• Good indoor environmental air quality
• Use of materials that are non-toxic, ethical and sustainable
• Consideration of the environment in design, construction and operation
• Consideration of the quality of life of occupants in design, construction and operation
• A design that enables adaptation to a changing environment

2. SUSTAINABLE SKYSCRAPERS
A sustainable skyscraper is the building, whose design team have achieved a balance between
environmental, economic and social issues at all stages, including design, construction, and operation. This
may involve greater emphasis on different aspects at different stages in the building’s life for example,
energy for building services and transport of building users and occupants and associated CO2 emissions.
A sustainable tall building can also be defined as the one which emits no pollution to air, considers its land
and water, and can contribute positively to the local community whilst be economically occupied
throughout its time-life. However, incorporating sustainable aspects in tall buildings is a challenge.20

3. RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES

There are number of important aspects that help reducing the carbon footprint in building including, energy
efficiency HVAC, lighting, transportation systems, and small power use equipment within buildings
(computers etc) and fabric measures that protect against excessive solar gain or high thermal transfer
through the fabric.

3.1 Combined Heat and Power (CHP)

Combined heat and power (CHP) systems, also known as cogeneration, generate electricity and useful
thermal energy in a single, integrated system. CHP is not a technology, but an approach to applying
technologies. The result is simultaneous production of power, heat and, chilled water for air-conditioning.
Trigeneration systems supply energy in three forms:
▪ Electricity
▪ Heat
▪ Chilled water

3.1.1 Method of power generation (CHP)

▪ Biogas or natural gas received form a source is combusted in a combustion chamber. The heated
gas rises up through the chamber.
▪ A flow of hot air is created that drives a turbine, connected to a generator producing energy. The
energy from the generator is supplied to the network as alternating current.
 ▪ The hot gas exhausting from the turbine is then captured using heat recovery boiler. The boiler
provides space and water heating for local buildings near by.
▪ The remaining low-grade heat is also captured to drive a steam turbine- producing yet more
electricity.
▪ The residual heat from the heat recovery boiler is used to drive an absorption chiller, producing
cold air for air conditioning.

Figure 3 Energy generation and distribution in CHP

3.1.2 Characteristics of CHP

▪ The concurrent production of electricity or mechanical power and useful thermal energy (heating
and/or cooling) from a single source of energy.
▪ A type of distributed generation, which, unlike central station generation, is located at or near the
point of consumption.
▪ A suite of technologies that can use a variety of fuels to generate electricity or power at the point
of use, allowing the heat that would normally be lost in the power generation process to be
recovered to provide needed heating and/or cooling

3.2.3 Case Study : One Angle Square

One Angle Square is a new office building located in Manchester, UK. Designed by 3Dreid for The Co-
operative Group, it is the first building in the UK to achieve BREEAM ‘outstanding’ rating. The building
was also awarded the A+ Energy Performance Certificate due to the boost in energy performance via CHP
system. It is 70m high and spread over an area of 500,000ft², making it the largest commercial office
building in Manchester.
Energy requirements of the building are fulfilled by a combined heat and power (CHP) system, which is
fuelled by waste cooking oil and rapeseed oil. The rapeseed oil is produced at The Co-operative’s own
farms. The CHP units also provide cooling through an absorption chiller. Each floor can be subdivided into
six zones, providing maximum occupational efficiency and flexibility.
 Figure 4 section of building showing passive cooling
methods adopted

3.2 Photovoltaic (PV) panels

Over the last two decades, photovoltaic systems (PV) have evolved rapidly and proved to be an efficient
system and practical solution for the sustainable supply of energy in buildings. It mainly converts the solar
energy to electricity, which is a potential opportunity for future skyscrapers. Its performance can range from
50-50 W/m² of the PV area depending upon the type of cell, which allows the transmission of day light.

The application of PV can be significant for high-rise buildings since they provide an opportunity for a
clear path of direct sunlight above other buildings, as well as collecting energy in diffuse light. In addition,
solar PVs can provide an excellent opportunity for aesthetic and environmental innovation. Panels can
replace roofs, and wall cladding systems can cover existing unsightly concrete buildings, provide rain
coverings and act as roof light.

Table 1 provides indicators of output for mono crystalline panels used in major cities in descending values
of energy yield in kWH/m²/year, and the panel optimum tilt angle.

3.2.1 Case Study: The Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) Lighthouse Tower
The DIFC Lighthouse Tower is a low-carbon, 400m high sustainable development office tower
accommodating with 64 office floors. It was inspired by the rectilinear context and simple minimalist lines.
The scope of the Lighthouse tower includes prestigious offices and visitor’s center above a 2-storey podium and
a leisure deck with health club, swimming pool, executive lounge and cultural spaces.

Figure 5The Lighthouse Tower, Dubai

The tower integrates semitransparent photovoltaic panels into the building on the southern façade to
generate up to 14% of the building’s power needs alone. in addition to that there are three enormous 225
kilowatt wind turbines mounted on top to harness wind energy. However, the following approaches have
been followed as well to make it a green skyscraper:

• extensive solar shading and high-performance glazing to reduce cooling loads

• use of solar collectors to run absorption chillers
• high efficiency building services, including intelligent lighting controls, daylight dimming, hear
recovery and mechanical services selected and seized to run efficiently at both full and part load
• use of chilled surfaces to provide comfort rather that 100% air systems
• “regenerative elevators” that generate electricity

3.3 Wind Energy

Energy can also be generated by a wind turbine, which benefits from the relatively high wind speeds
at altitude. Turbines could be an integral part of the building Fabric or be mounted between buildings,
or even to be placed on the top of buildings. In all instances the central economics of either losing
space and / or having to reinforce structure need to be considered as well as the other costs and benefits
of using a wind turbine system. The idea is to capture a huge wind resource for generating electricity
by on-site wind turbines. Wind turbines can exploit higher wind speeds around tall buildings or at the
top and can be designed for low noise emissions. Some notable examples from around the world
include Burj al-Taqa (Energy Tower), Dubai which includes 200-foot wind turbine that will sit atop the
building and WTC Bahrain featuring two 240 t towers having three turbines.
3.3.1 Case study: World Trade Center, Bahrain.
WTC Bharain features two 53-story sail-shaped office towers taper to a height of 240 m and support three 29 m
diameter horizontal-axis wind turbines. The towers are harmoniously integrated on top of a three-story
sculpted podium and basement which accommodate a new shopping center, restaurants, business
centers and car parking. The whole design of the building is wind derived. The main aim of design was to
incorporate three functional turbines to make the design sustainable. The unique solution to the Challenges
faced to fulfill this agenda shaped the building on the site.
Initial proposal for WTC Bahrain was to have two elliptical towers having three equally spaced turbines
mounted on their respective horizontal bridge as shown in figure. However the following problems were
faced with that:
1. The turbines’ inability to turn perpendicular to the changing wind direction
2. Wind turbines needed uninterrupted wind.
Thus after various simulations the two towers were opened up from the front in order to funnel wind at
uninterrupted velocity between the towers hitting the blades perpendicularly at most time of the year
(accelerating by 20%) and compensate for the turbines’ inability to turn.

Figure 6 simulation and concept sketch for wind

towers

3. Wind speed increases with height- topmost turbine produces max energy and gets worn out sooner.
The tapering shape of the tower funnels more wind at bottom than at top, thus even at higher speed at the
top the amount of wind funneling at the bottom makes up for it. This makes all turbines produce similar
amount of energy.
4. Blade deflection at the ends of a 16.5 m long blade
Hence the bridge is curved inward
Major Structural System(s) comprises of Reinforced concrete with structural steelworks used for the clad
steel tower, panoramic lift enclosure and mezzanine floors. Building materials used in the façade are
double glazed glass and insulated aluminum spandrels, stone walls and floor cladding as it remains cooler
in the hot climate of Bahrain

4.Conclusion
It may be true that a skyscraper will consume more energy than a much smaller building, but within
the wider context of urban design, the raw data of energy consumption does not tell the whole story.
It is believed that taller buildings make more efficient use of urban space and existing infrastructure
and provide one solution to the problem of urban sprawl. green skyscrapers can significantly reduce
the consumption of energy, produce energy from renewable resources, reduce the production of
wastewater and reduce material Whatever the future holds for green skyscrapers or tall buildings,
their development must become more sustainable in a triple-bottom-line approach, environment,
economy and people.
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