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International Living Future Institute Adds Net Zero Energy Building Certification

As the need for energy-resiliency increases globally, the Institute responds with a program to verify that 100 percent of a building’s energy needs are supplied by on-site renewable sources.

TORONTO, Ont. — Oct. 04, 2011 —  In an effort to advance far-reaching strategies for energy efficiency  and fossil fuel independence in new and operational buildings, the International Living Future Institute unveiled today the Net Zero Energy Building Certification program.

“In the next two decades, we are looking at the disappearance of cheap oil, a scarcity of finite resources, the continual decay of our infrastructure and a ballooning planetary population that will compel us to adjust to new ways of building and being,” says Jason F. McLennan, CEO of the Institute. “We see Net Zero Energy Building Certification as a way to galvanize and recognize widespread efforts to eliminate fossil fuel use and to conserve energy. We also hope that those who seek this sustainable path --- and who are successful -- will capitalize on the possibilities and consider expanding their scope to achieve full Living Building Challenge certification in the future.”

The Net Zero Energy Certification program is the first of its kind and will likely capture the attention of projects around the globe seeking to be free of fossil fuels and carbon emissions. Projects may register from anywhere in the world and nearly any project is eligible for consideration. Renewable energy is defined as passive solar, photovoltaics, wind turbines, solar thermal, direct geothermal , water-powered microturbines, or fuel cells powered by hydrogen generated from renewably-powered electrolysis.

“Third party verification of far reaching goals like net zero energy is critically important to their uptake. Certification and the independent audits we provide are proof that environmental claims are real” says McLennan.

Find out more about the certification program and how to get started by visiting www.living-future.org/netzero.

Deep Savings in Existing Buildings Summit | Path to Zero Energy Buildings

The New Buildings Institute (NBI) recently hosted the 2011 Deep Savings in Existing Buildings Summit, gathering more than 80 innovative thinkers on energy savings and the built environment. Held in Boulder, Colorado, the three-day event was organized as part of NBI’s ongoing work to facilitate wide adoption of deep energy savings across existing U.S. commercial building stock—roughly 71.6 billion square feet of space.

The Work

To meet national goals for reduced energy use and climate impact, it is imperative that much of our existing building stock be significantly upgraded over the next two decades. While 50% or greater savings has been demonstrated, this level of savings isn’t the prevailing trend. There is a higher need to go beyond individual efficiency measures with relatively short payback periods (frequently two to three years) and to strategize how to bring replicable system upgrades to existing buildings with deeper, more long-term solutions.

NBI’s existing buildings work, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Kresge Foundation, seeks to drive the market for energy efficiency through development of key tools and informational resources. We have been expanding a set of deep savings case studies (view the 11 Deep Energy Savings case studies and Getting to 50 Database) and optimizing two simple and intuitive tools (First View and Multi-Measure) for building designers, owners, operators and others to provide a better understanding of current energy performance and potential solutions. Additionally, we have supported Preservation Green Lab’s work to research and characterize the prototypical building types, or “typologies,” that represent significant numbers of existing buildings. READ MORE >>

See our Summit “Snapshot” for a preliminary list of takeaways and brief working group summaries from the event.

via www.newbuildings.org

Energy-Positive Buildings Inch Closer to Mainstream Markets >> Forbes

By William Pentland

Hydro Building Systems, a division of the Norwegian multinational aluminum giant Hydro, has confirmed the energy-positive performance of a building constructed in 2009 in Bellenberg, Germany.

The building produces about 80% more electric power than it consumes annually, according to analysis of performance data collected to date.

The test center for energy-effective building solutions, which produces enough power to satisfy its own consumption needs and deliver surplus power to the German electricity grid, was inaugurated by Hydro’s building brand company WICONA in June 2009.

In addition to heat pumps and building-integrated solar photovoltaic systems that produce power onsite, the building features an innovative façade design that reduces energy consumption to as little as 23 kilowatt-hours per square meter annually.

“A super-efficient façade is the most important contributor in the realization of an energy-positive building,” said Lars Hauk Ringvold, president of Hydro Building Systems.  “We see demand for façade solutions for zero-energy buildings and energy-positive buildings increasing significantly in the coming years.”

via www.forbes.com

New York, Solar City

It will be a sustainable building milestone: a structure that generates every watt of power it needs from a 96-kilowatt (KW) canopy of solar panels, perched like a beetle’s black carapace above its roof. Ground source heat pumps will warm the structure, called Solar 2, in the winter, and heavily insulated walls will keep hot air out in the summer.

Solar 2, a green energy education center for the nonprofit group Solar One, won’t be built in the Sunbelt or in an off-the-grid national park. Instead, it will occupy a contaminated landfill site on Manhattan’s East River, near some of the most densely packed streets in the world. Solar One is currently raising money to construct the $12 million building, which has qualified for a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum award from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Less than 20 years ago, a “net-zero energy building” building wouldn’t have stood a chance on New York’s mean streets, according to Gregory Kiss of Kiss+Cathcart Architects, the building’s designer. At the time, buildings outfitted with photovoltaic solar panels — called building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) — were coming into vogue in California and Northern Europe, but New York developers and homeowners wouldn’t bite. Solar panels were too expensive, there were no financial incentives to installing them, and the approval process was cumbersome. It was, in some circumstances, even illegal to install solar panels on a building and then try to connect to the grid, according to New York energy experts.

Times have changed. READ MORE >>

via www.txchnologist.com

Energy: Scaling It Up | Metropolis Magazine

A new 220,000-square-foot building takes zero-energy architecture to a whole new level.

By Mason Currey

You hear a lot about zero-energy architecture these days, but at the time of this writing there are only eight commercial buildings in the United States that can truly claim this distinction—that is, buildings that have been proven to the U.S. Department of Energy’s satisfaction to produce as much energy as they use over the course of a year. And none of them are very large; the biggest is 13,600 square feet. But that is set to change dramatically. Last June, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), in Golden, Colorado, opened a new, ultra-efficient research-support facility that at 220,000 square feet is poised to take zero-energy buildings to a far vaster scale.

The secret to the building’s efficiency is a mix of high-end technology—like
a 55,000-square-foot array of rooftop photovoltaics—and surprisingly low-tech solutions. One key to the design is an underground “thermal labyrinth,” essentially a crawl space with a maze of concrete walls that stores and slowly releases warm or cool air, depending on the season. The idea for the labyrinth came from the area’s poor soil quality, according to Craig Randock, a principal of the Denver-based firm RNL, which worked with Stantec and Haselden Construction to realize the $64 million project. “You’ve got to dig way down to the rock,” Randock says. “And we thought, Well, we can actually use it as a big thermal battery.” READ MORE >>

via www.metropolismag.com

How to achieve energy neutrality in cities

By Andy van den Dobbelsteen and Nico Tillie

...planners have yet to fully grasp the fundamental question at the heart of the global warming challenge in urban areas: how can cities and towns become far more autonomous and possibly even free from fossil fuels?

In Europe, until now, architects and urban planners have often followed three steps when designing a sustainable built environment. Reducing energy consumption, utilising sustainable energy, and using fossil fuels as efficiently and cleanly as possible. However, to date at least, this approach has not led to substantially more sustainable towns and cities.

As part of a new approach, we have therefore added in another step: re-using waste flows such as waste-water, household and agricultural waste, and residual heat, whilst using renewable energy to satisfy remaining demand. All buildings and urban areas generate "waste streams" that could be harnessed, but rarely are. We believe that adoption of this approach will eventually render the use of fossil fuels completely unnecessary. READ MORE >>

via environment.weblog.tudelft.nl

HOK: A Theory of Net Positivity

Einstein’s Theory of Relativity changed the world of science in the 20th century. In 2010, we’re thinking about a new theory that could have a tremendous [positive] impact on the built environment of the 21st century and beyond. While our industry is beginning to learn more and more about zero energy and zero emissions building, (ZEB) or “Net Zero,” our hope is that HOK can lead the way to building these increasingly necessary projects that consume zero net energy and emit zero net carbon. 

In response to Architecture 2030′s challenge to the global architecture and building community, HOK has committed to designing all buildings to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030. HOK’s Net Zero efforts are chronicled in several of our blog posts on HOKlife.com.  HOK’s Chairman, Bill Valentine recently authored an article for Contract Magazine about our prototype project, a 170,735-sq.-ft. Class A, zero emissions office building called Net Zero Co2urt.

While HOK is proud to advance Net Zero, we would be remiss to stop there. We’ve challenged ourselves to pose and respond to an important question: What happens beyond Zero? The mathematical answer is positive. HOK is learning a lot about what it means to build a Net Zero building. READ MORE >>

via hoklife.com

NY Times: For a Premier Lab, a Zero-Energy Showcase

Department of Energy The new Research Support Facility in Golden, Colo., will generate as much energy as it uses.

The federal government has just finished construction on a zero-energy office building, the nation’s largest, and is hoping that commercial developers will follow its lead. The 222,000-square-foot Research Support Facility is on the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory campus in Golden, Colo. Just over 800 employees will occupy the building once it officially opens in late August.

A zero-energy building creates as much energy as it uses over the course of a year, said John Andary, a principal at Stantec, the sustainable design consultants for the project. Thanks to various “passive” design techniques and technologies, the facility will consume 50 percent less energy than buildings constructed to current commercial codes, he predicts. The remaining power needs will be generated onsite from solar panels, allowing the building to operate at an annual net-zero energy basis.

Remarkably, many of the efficiency “innovations” are existing building techniques, some of them centuries old, that were developed to make the best use of natural light and the earth’s ability to heat and cool. By contrast, modern building design, based on the ubiquity of cheap energy, moved away from many of those principles.

via green.blogs.nytimes.com

Striving for Zero in New York City

A modular-construction project underway in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood aims to be one of the first live-work structures in the city to achieve NZE performance.

By Richard Defendorf

The Red Hook section of Brooklyn isn’t what it used to be. Less than 20 years ago it was regarded as a desolate patch of New York City borough that was no stranger to urban struggle. The neighborhood in recent years hasn’t exactly shaken off its social and maritime/industrial legacies, but the community has been living up to its recently acquired “resindustrial” reputation.

One bit of evidence supporting that notion is a live/work project called Redhook Green.

Announced in December, Redhook Green is designed as a four-story modular structure with about 4,000 sq. ft. of interior space, including an apartment, offices, a studio, and a multi-car garage. The project’s developer, technology and media entrepreneur Jay Amato, noted that the shell of the building, which features a stacked-container appearance, is designed to provide R-50 thermal resistance and net-zero-energy performance. If it meets the performance criterion, it will be one of the first NZE live/work projects in New York City

via www.greenbuildingadvisor.com

U.S. Directs $36 Million Toward Net-Zero Building Research

By Tim McKeough

Reflecting the rapidly growing interest in sustainable design and construction technologies, the U.S. Department of Energy has announced new funding to support research on net-zero energy buildings.

Berkeley Lab plans to use the funds to construct a new facility to research net-zero energy buildings. While the lab currently tests building products, “with this new facility, we’re scaling up to full building systems,” explains Stephen Selkowitz, head of the Building Technologies Department in the lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division. Plans are still being finalized, but the project is expected to consist of a series of structures, either standalone or within existing buildings on campus, for researching HVAC systems, facade systems, lighting and interiors, skylights, and building sensors and controls. The centerpiece will be a set of three 5,000-square-foot structures where these different systems can be tested together.

via archrecord.construction.com