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| London's City Hall goes solar  Southwark Council has approved the planning application for a unique photovoltaic system, which has been specially designed to compliment the rounded shape of the Foster and Partners designed building. The panels will provide 70 kW of renewable energy, generating 3.1 million kWh of renewable electricity over their lifetime. The panels will reduce the CO2 emissions of City Hall by 3,000 tonnes in its lifetime – enough to fill 3,000 hot air balloons. City Hall already incorporates a number of sustainable features including the building shape itself to reduce solar gains.The building is naturally ventilated, with windows in all office spaces that can be opened, whilst heat generated by from computers and lights is recycled. Electrical consumption is reduced by avoiding refrigeration and uses ground water to cool air in the building. The water is extracted from the water table beneath London through two bore-holes. This is used to cool the building and then used in toilets and for irrigation savings on mains water. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Construction News :: home page |