New London Tower Will Generate 8 Percent Of Its Own Electricity

A new 42-floor London skyscraper will be the world’s first building to incorporate wind turbines in the design, an innovation developers say will generate 8 percent of the building’s electricity needs. The Strata Tower, a 408-unit apartment building scheduled to open in July, will be topped with three 19-kilowatt turbines — each with five 29.5-foot blades designed to suck wind from various angles and accelerate it through tubes, generating as much as 50 megawatt-hours of electricity annually. It will also generate about £16,000 to £17,000 annually through the nation’s new feed-in tariff, the developers say. The £13-million tower, which developers hope will be a model in sustainable construction, will also utilize natural ventilation rather than air conditioning. By 2019, government law will require carbon neutral design for all new buildings. Green building advocates described the Strata design as pioneering, but questioned whether wind turbines would become common in skyscraper projects. “I doubt wind power will become a common feature in high-rise inner-city projects,” said Paul King, chief executive of the UK Green Building Council. “But without this type of bold innovation, how would we ever know?”