That would be the Bahrain World Trade Center Towers, in the view of Ecogeek’s Jon Schroeder. The Towers main green feature is three wind turbines measuring nearly 100 feet in diameter. The building is designed to funnel the Gulf wind into the turbines.
The Middle East Times reports the turbines will deliver 1,100 to 1,300 megawatt hours per year, but this is just 11% to 15% of the strucuture’s energy needs.
So I doubt this will be the greenest skyscraper in the world. The owners aren’t touting any other green features. The Designbuild Network, which gave the building an environmental award, says “The building also incorporates a large number of other sustainable features.” But they only list these:
The deep gravel roofs in some locations provide kinetic insulation, while balconies to the sloping elevations with overhangs provide shading. Dense concrete core and floor slabs will level loads and reduce peak demand with associated reductions in air and chilled water transport systems.
This list does not impress me, and after we run through other green buildings, I don’t think it will impress you. The greenest skyscrapter should be a zero-energy building, which the Bahrain World Trade Center Towers isn’t close to, or at least LEED Platinum (like this U.S. building), which I doubt the BWTC is close to either.
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