Buildings are responsible for 40% of the world's energy consumption, but what if buildings are equipped with regenerative technologies to produce enough clean and renewable energy to meet consumption, or better still, surplus energy that can fed back to the community grid, or that can be used to provide a new revenue stream?
With a lower cost in alternative energy generation, commercial and residential property owners are increasingly embracing the idea of net-zero or net-plus buildings, which is good for planet, business, and community.
Boutiquehotel Stadthalle in Vienna, for instance, is the world's first urban hotel to have zero energy balance, meaning that it produces as much energy as it uses. With its investment in water volume reduction, rainwater collection, recycling drinking water, LED lighting, solar thermal panels, photovoltaics, micro wind turbines and ground source heat pumps, the hotel currently has only 2% energy cost, compared to other three-star hotels which usually have 7% energy cost.
The SVART Hotel, expected to open in 2021 in Norway, is set to become the world's first energy-positive hotel, reducing its yearly energy consumption by 85%, not least by harvesting enough solar energy to cover the energy consumption of daily operations and the energy needed to construct the building.
Read more about net-zero and net-positive urban buildings here.