The Pearl River Tower: The Skyscraper That Generates Its Own Electricity | Megastructures | Spark

I rooted around looking for some case studies of the Pearl River Tower, which show the renewables actually make only about 10% of the building electricity: Biomass energy recovery @ 1.2 MW offsets 5% of monthly building energy- almost same as the Solar, which is also 5%. The Wind contributes further 3-5%, up to max 10%. The numbers differ but generally agreed wind NOT cost effective. The biggest contributor to saving energy is the novel fresh air delivery system. I don't know if they achieved their 40% energy reduction target. It was determined that the best way to save energy when designing is by employing more efficient systems.

31:42 for the part u came for

How things like this are possible to build is still amazing to me

Construction of this tower started in 2006 and was completed in 2011, so some of the info in this doc is a decade or so out of date.

I knew "net zero" was a pipedream right from the beginning. Even if they had installed the gas turbines in the basement, that's not "net zero".

What strikes me most is the strive for achievement and success by ambitious, innovative and creative professionals like these architects, construction engineers and designers to fulfil their dreams and create marvels whenever, wherever they can. We must celebrate people like these. Great job.

The sheer size of this building and size of those steel beams is quite impressive, even exclusive of the height.

Many thanks for the the effort of creating of this building … it must have not been easy.

I believe many of these technologies were realized at the NEC headquarters building in Japan over 30 years ago. Of course, I think it has evolved since then.

Human ingenuity, engineering and technology is really amazing.

Awesome structure, and excellent architecture, engineering, and execution by all the teams involved. This building is a predecessor to many forward-thinking structure to come.

A thought occurred to me a little while after watching this. The act of mining and processing the raw materials for steel, glass, and concrete along with the power and energy for construction of this massive building produced several hundred tons of CO2 and green house gasses. Is such an endeavor worth it when we are trying to limit our output. Couldn't we build smaller spaces that allow people to gather without the wasteful processes used here?

This thing has the cross section of a prostate massager.

The revolutionary dynamic nature of this building is a testimony to the benefits of the engineering and testing process for both large and small scale construction projects. it is also a testimony to the excellent skilled labor force they have in china.

@36:45 It says safety first, but at 35:47 and 36:00 it shows 2 rodbusters on edge of building clearly not tied off. No OSHA there.

3:01 take a guess what happens in the second after the cut? Pay attention they keep coming closer to the stacks...

This is an old film. I used to live nearby of this site and watched this tower went up day by day. It was 12 years ago. Not sure if it's working as they claimed.

well, as an aerodynamicist, sticking a couple (very small) VAWT's in those venturis is kind of a waste, so i guess this was mostly a gimmick. whats the point of building those slots and then sticking in a turbine which captures such a small subset of the flow?

@ 4:45 , fabricating curved box beam is a science and art. Hence, only special steel fabrication shop can meet the challenge. In fact USA has only one steel fabrication shop that can mass produce curved box beam. But China has several; that’s should tell you something.

Thanks!