There are sustainable buildings, and then there is the Powerhouse Brattørkaia—a new building from Norwegian architecture studio Snøhetta. The building, which is located in Trondheim, Norway, produces more than twice the electricity it requires each day. That makes it the world’s northernmost energy-positive building.
Its location and layout was carefully chosen to offer maximum exposure to the sun, and its pentagonal roof and the upper part of its facade is covered in 3,000 sq m (roughly 32,000 sq ft) of solar panels. These produce approximately 500,000 kWh of electricity over a year, which works out as more than twice as much as it requires per day.
On top of all this, Snøhetta is currently developing a system of batteries that can store excess electricity produced during summer when there is plenty of daylight. The stored electricity would then be used during winter when much of the day is dark. Once the company figures out how to do this, there will be no stopping the rise of more energy-positive buildings like this the Powerhouse Brattørkaia.
This story was one of the best from 2019, and we are happy to include it in our “12 Days of Optimism” as we get ready to welcome 2020!
