Sustainable Skyscrapers: Designing the Net Zero Energy Building of the Future
Abstract
Cities of the future will need to increase population density in order to keep up with the rising populations in the limited available land area. In order to provide sufficient power as the population grows, cities must become more energy efficient. Fossil fuels and grid energy will continue to become more expensive as nonrenewable resources deplete. The obvious solution to increase population density while decreasing the reliance on fossil fuels is to build taller skyscrapers that are energy neutral, i.e. self-sustaining. However, current skyscrapers are not energy efficient, and therefore cannot provide a sustainable solution to the problem of increasing population density in the face of depleting energy resources. The design of a net zero energy building that includes both residential and commercial space is presented. Alternative energy systems such as wind turbines, photovoltaic cells, and a waste-to-fuel conversion plant have been incorporated into the design of a 50 story skyscraper that is not reliant on fossil fuels and has a payback time of about six years. Although the current building was designed to be located in San Francisco, simple modifications to the design would allow this building to fit the needs of any city around the world.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFMED41A0795K
- Keywords:
-
- 0805 Elementary and secondary education;
- EDUCATIONDE: 0825 Teaching methods;
- EDUCATIONDE: 0850 Geoscience education research;
- EDUCATIONDE: 0855 Diversity;
- EDUCATION