Mustafa Shafawi Channel NewsAsia 15 Sep 10;
SINGAPORE: The Building and Construction Authority's (BCA) flagship R&D project which is almost a year old, generates enough electricity not to just power its own needs.
In fact, the Zero Energy Building (ZEB) on Braddell Road has generated enough surplus electricity to power 35 HDB five-room flats.
The ZEB, a super energy efficient building, is the first existing building in Southeast Asia to be fully retrofitted with green building design features and technologies.
To achieve net zero energy power consumption, the building has to produce its own electricity.
This is done through solar panels on the roof, covering an area larger than an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
A two-step, integrated design approach was employed to ensure that the ZEB was 40-50 per cent more efficient than a typical office building.
Through 'Passive Design', the project team managed to minimise heat transfer via design features such as greenery systems, light shelves and sun-shading devices.
This was followed by a well conceived installation of 'Active Solutions' such as energy efficient air-conditioning system, high efficiency lighting including motion sensors and carbon dioxide sensors.
A team member of the project, Associate Professor Stephen Wittkopf, said the main target of the project was to demonstrate that the concept of a zero-energy building is possible even in the tropics, where high air-conditioning loads make up more than 50 per cent of the electricity consumption of buildings.
He said after almost one year of energy monitoring, the team is happy to report that the target has been achieved.
The building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems have generated a surplus of electricity which is fed back into the BCA premise grid".
BCA said the ZEB has drawn interest from 7,000 visitors from various local and international academia, corporates, government organisations and the public since its opening. - CNA/fa
BCA's green building achieves zero power consumption
Business Times 16 Sep 10;
(SINGAPORE) The Building and Construction Authority's (BCA) zero energy building (ZEB) has succeeded in achieving zero power consumption, and a surplus of 16.3 MWh (megawatts/ hour) of electricity just one year after its launch.
As a gauge, the power surplus is roughly savings of about $3,900 per month for 35 units of HDB 5-room flats at residential electricity tariffs pegged at 24.13 cents/kWh (kilowatts/ hour).
A BCA press statement yesterday said that its flagship research and development project is on track to achieve its target of net zero energy consumption next month.
The ZEB, located at the BCA Academy in Braddell, is the first existing building in South-east Asia to be fully retrofitted with green building design features and technologies.
Passive design and active solutions, a two-step, integrated design approach was employed to ensure that the ZEB was 40-50 per cent more efficient than a typical office building.
Through 'passive design', the project team comprising researchers from The National University of Singapore (NUS) and practitioners from the private sector, managed to minimise heat transfer through the building envelope via design features such as greenery systems and sun-shading devices. This was followed by the installation of 'active solutions' such as energy efficient air-conditioning systems and high efficiency lighting including motion sensors.
To achieve net zero energy power consumption, the building has to produce its own electricity. Through an EDB-funded solar power system, about 1,540 square metres of solar energy (photovoltaic) panels, or a combined area bigger than an Olympic-sized swimming pool, were installed on ZEB's roof and other prominent areas to tap the sun's energy.
John Keung, BCA's CEO, said that the ZEB placed Singapore favourably in the world green building map.
