This is the Pearl River Tower, a 71 story skyscaper being built in Guangzhou City in southern China.
The building’s unique curved design is intended to focus the strong prevailing southern winds that blow through the region. Orientated to face these winds head-on, the Pearl River Tower’s sculpted facade will increase the speed of these winds (by two-and-a-half times) and channel them through two main slots in the building where wind turbines will be located. Because of this focusing of wind and higher speeds, it is estimated the vertical turbines will produce up to 15 times more energy than they would if they were standalone units.
Some of the more unique and notable elements of the structure are:
- Slab integrated cooling system that circulates cool water through the floors of the building acting as a cooling radiator. This method is much more energy-efficient than forced air cooling and saves space as well. So much so that the building owners were able to add an additional 5-stories to the building without increasing its originally designed and approved height.
- Reclaimed energy through routing each floor’s exhaust air into the south side’s double-layer curtain-wall cavity. This thermal barrier of hot dry air can then be reused on the mechanical floor for passive dehumidification.
- High temperature fuel cells for excess energy storage.
- Outer skin of the facade has incorporated glare control as well as integrated solar PV for energy production.
- In-floor air displacement HVAC
- Double-decker elevator
The Pearl River Tower is designed to be more than just energy-efficient; it’s designed to provide itself all of its needed operational power. That’s right, a net-zero skyscraper. While claims such as this one have been made in the past, it appears the Pearl River Tower has the design and equipment to achieve this lofty goal.
Comments(4)