Pearl River Tower - China's Super Energy Efficient Skyscraper

The pace and intensity of the Chinese construction industry means that four new tower blocks are being finished in China each day, but he majority of these structures are still reliant on environmentally-damaging fossil fuel energy for their electricity needs.  Despite this, one new Chinese building is being constructed that will focus much more on environmental preservation.

In fact, the Pearl River Tower, which is in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, is being referred to as offering energy efficiency beyond that of any previous skyscraper in history.   It features an array of photovoltaic devices, wind turbines, ultra hi-tech insulation and intelligent lightning, all of which are intended to lower its energy consumption to around 50 per cent of that normally associated with a circa 1,000-foot-high structure. 

According to engineers, modifications could even be carried out on it allowing electricity beyond its own requirements to be generated, but to achieve this, the regional power firm would need to loosen its hold on the area.

Energy Efficient Construction 

The buzz factor being created by the Pearl River Tower is all to do with the fact that its design shoehorns so many environmental technologies and techniques into a single energy efficient construction project.  Wind power technology is strongly represented, with four wind turbines to be installed that will be positioned so as to benefit from the tower’s shape.  

The anticipated annual wind power capacity is 1 million kilowatts.

Its the ceiling, though, that will potentially play the biggest part in helping the Pearl River Tower hit its energy efficiency goals, with so-termed radiant ceiling technology employed that draws on a direct water supply to cool down the spaces between ceilings and floors. 

The Pearl River Tower is the brainchild of American architects Owings and Merrill, who have highlighted the $13 million in additional costs generated by the development and implementation of all of its environmental technology.  However, they added, the impacts of reduced electricity costs, decreased maintenance costs and other benefits could lead to this outlay being recovered within five years.

The principal engineer involved in the Pearl River Tower project, Roger Frechette, suggests that, compared to a regularly heated, electrified and ventilated skyscraper, this one’s energy consumption would be 58 per cent reduced at maximum.

Completion of the innovative Pearl River Tower project is set to occur in 2010.