Photo by Flickr user Pricey. Cretaive Commons licence.
The Bahrain World Trade Centre, under construction above, is being hailed as the world's first with an integrated wind turbine power source. The turbines will deliver 11%-15% of the building's energy needs.
The building is really spectacular, but the amount of energy saving is considerably less that the estimated saving for the Carpe Diem tower designed for La Défense in Paris, so, could do better.
We have to hope it will fare better than the Palestra building in London, which was also hailed as the world's first with integrated wind turbines. The turbines weren't as well integrated into the overall design, just lined up on the roof, and they had to be removed after some months because of a failure.
Photo by flickr user mondoagogo. Creative Commons licence.
They are being replaced with two new sorts which are to be tested to find the more successful.
They are much smaller turbines than the ones in Bahrain, producing only 4% of the building's needs. The photovoltaic panels increase the savings to 10%.
Been there :D
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that thing is actually doing something good ;)
It is build after the traditional housings a taxi driver told us.
In older days the Bahraini houses must have had something similar to windmills.
I would have to look it up though. I forgot all about it.
Thanks Nicole, you've sent me on a Google chase :) though I haven't been successful in finding out much about the design/shape of the building itself.
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