In another, don’t pop the bubbly story, Patel Architecture Inc. announced that they have completed the design of a 5-Star China Hotel To Be Carbon-Neutral
For those of you who are saying… Wait a minute, URBN hotel in Shanghai is the first carbon neutral hotel, you would be right… and wrong.
Where this story really is interesting, is that per the announcement, it appears that this facility will not require the purchase of carbon offsetting and will deploy a lot of technology to make it carbon neutral by operation and design:
The design provides for wind turbines on the upper portion of the tower and massive array of photovoltaic panels covering the entire south façade. In the basement is a provision to incorporate a fuel cell power generator that would run on clean natural gas to efficiently produce electricity and heat for hot water. The proposed groundbreaking design of the 373-key Mayland Seaside Hotel would make it the first hotel in the world to be completely carbon-neutral.
To be completed by 2012 – 2013, I look forward to seeing what changes/ compromises are made to bring the project to market.