Chicago’s Sears Tower claims it will reduce its consumption of electricity by 80%, and have the goal of becoming net-zero user of the power grid. The London based Willis Insurance company will rename the Sears Tower to be Willis Tower next month.
How will technology save all this energy? Well, they’re going to replace all of the windows in the building. Okay, that’s useful. I hope the new windows aren’t heavier than the ones they are replacing. More efficient elevators and lighting control systems. A few hundred square feet of solar panels to heat water for the 104 story building They might try putting some wind turbines on the roof, but aren’t sure if that will work.
The description of the building says it is has a 150 Mwh power distribution system. That’s 150,000 kw of power. That’s a lot of power to get from 4 wind turbines. How much energy is that? Another stimulus funded green energy project on the south side of Chicago covering 46 acres in the former Pullman industrial site is “hoped” to generate a maximum of 10 Mwh of power. Of course, that would only be when the sun is shining and there are no clouds.
The building will somehow be powered by green energy… (like buying green energy offset credits from T Boon Pickens in Texas perhaps?)
Another part of the plan is to build a new hotel next door – Chicago currently has a glut of unused hotel rooms, but that could change when President Obama moves the U.S. Capital to Chicago.
A few other things to ask…
- Is the 80% figure for only the building or does it include the energy used by the tenants in the building?
- How is the building heated? Will the other changes change the heating and air conditioning load? [answers]
The insanity continues.
Tags: Green Energy, Sears Tower, Stimulus Projects, T Boon Pickens