The “Energy Plus” Building Produces All Its Own Power

by Justin on January 22, 2008

in Architecture, Renewable Power


The “Energy Plus” office building, to be located outside of Paris, is designed to produce all its own energy for heating, lighting and air conditioning. This zero-energy building, according to the designers, will be the greenest office building ever created. It will accomplish this by having more solar panels on its roof than any other building – producing enough energy to power the entire building and still feed extra back into the grid.

Its unique cooling system will take cold water from the river Seine and pump it around the building – eliminating the need for a traditional air conditioner.

The 70,000-square-meter building will also utilize cutting edge insulation, reducing amount of electricity consumption per square meter of office space per year to 16 kilowatts, the lowest in the world for a building of its size.

The building is expected to house up to 5,000 people. It’s expected to cost approximately 25% to 30% more than a traditional office building. It was designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill, the architectural firm behind New York’s upcoming Freedom Tower.

In France, 47 percent of pollution comes from real estate, 33 percent is from industry and 23 percent comes from cars.

Via: PSFK via Daily Telegraph

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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

ASDFGHJKL February 28, 2008 at 10:43 pm

“In France, 47 percent of pollution comes from real estate, 33 percent is from industry and 23 percent comes from cars.” That totals 103%. There would obviously have to be some overlap, but it does highlight the immaturity of pollution accounting methods…

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curt May 1, 2008 at 12:07 pm

It would have been really great, that every new building would have been energy efficient and environmentally sustainable, even not so very posh as this trendy French building in Paris.

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Mahmoud Kabalan September 3, 2008 at 6:37 am

Its a good start towards more energy efficient office and housing structures.

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