143 meters tall, rising above the crowd in Central London, Strata SE1 (or “the Razor” as it is popularly called, due to its sharp, angular design), is the first skyscraper in the world “to have electricity-generating wind turbines built into its core design ‘fabric’.”
Michael Ricciardi of Planetsave writes:
While there are other, much taller buildings with turbines added on following the finish of their primary construction, the Strata has included them in the architectural plan from the get-go. The threesome of integrated wind turbines, at full capacity, will generate 8% of the buildings energy needs. This may not seem like very much, but it amounts to several dozen mega (million) watt hours annually–saving the owners and residents a great deal of money (and freeing up extra capacity from traditional utilities).
The Razor is 42 stories high. At such a height, it has nearly constant 40 mph winds coming at it. That makes for a good place to have wind turbines.
It is also designed to make use of the change in airflow caused by nearby buildings, also known as the “Venturi effect”.
“Named after Italian Physicist (1746-1822) Giovanni Battista Venturi, the ‘Venturi effect’ describes the inverse relationship between fluid (or air) flow speed and its pressure (flow speed increases as pressure decreases) as it is forced, or compressed, by a surrounding structure (such as in a pipe, or between two buildings),” Ricciardi writes.
Hopefully, we will see more such buildings incorporating self-sustaining power generation into the core of their design.
The Razor’s 19 KW wind turbines use 5 blades instead of 3 to cut down on noise pollution. The building is expected to generate 50 MWh of electricity a year.
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Photo Credit: herbrm via flickr
About Zachary Shahan
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