Zero energy brighter future

The chilled water used in the process will come from solar cooling technologies that heat water up and convert it into cold water through an absorption process.

No fans are necessary to distribute the air due to the natural ventilation process already mentioned.

And the electricity used to run the handling units will be supplied from the tower's other renewable wind and solar sources.

Lighting

To minimise the amount of energy wasted on artificial lighting during the day, the Energy Tower tries to maximise its usage of daylight.

To harvest natural light, highly reflective mirrors called heliostats, will cover the entire roof of the tower and reflect sunlight to the tip of a light cone in the tower's centre.

The light cone runs the length of the building and reflects the light into each floor through a system of holographic optical elements.

Lucking said the tower's double-layered façade will also have clear glazing instead of light reflective tinned glazing commonly seen on most towers.

Solar shield and renewables

While the clear glazing will let in more light, the flipside is that it also lets in more heat. To combat this problem, the inner layer of the façade will be vacuum glazing, a new glazing which helps prevent heat transfer.

Additionally, the designers have developed a solar shield which will rotate around the building protecting it from the heat of the sun.

The semi-transparent shield runs the length of the building and rotates on rails within the double-layered façade tracking the sun around the building.

Not letting a good sun harvesting opportunity go to waste, the solar shield will be covered in 4,000m² of photovoltaics solar technologies which will account for 20% of the tower's renewable energy.

Another 11,000m2 of photo-voltaics will be placed on the shopping mall rooftop at the base of the tower and 17,000m2 of solar collectors for the water cooling process will be on a floating solar island next to the tower.

The final renewable energy source will be the 60m wind turbine on top of the tower, the largest of its kind in the world.

"It called a Darrieus-rotor and is a proven technology, but no one has done it in that size before," said Lucking. "It has the advantage that you don't need to direct it towards the wind. Regardless of where the wind is coming from, it will turn."

Structure

According to Lucking the main structural element of the tower is the external columns which provide strength and support due to their lattice-like arrangement.

Lucking said strength is such that they've avoiding using any internal columns and have managed to save a tremendous amount of space.

The only internal load bearing structure is the central atrium, which in itself is utilised for the vertical transportation of people and fresh air.

Comfort

Throughout the design of the building Lucking said they tried to create the most comfortable interspatial experience for people in the tower.

Without confining structural walls, the interior will consist of open areas filled with an abundance of natural light; hanging gardens will run the entire length of the building within the five ventilation atria; and the ventilation and cooling system will be more comfortable than the cold draughts associated with air conditioners.

READERS' COMMENTS

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM