Check out this cool, new solar powered stadium in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The stadium is the world’s largest sports facility powered by solar energy. The new stadium is the main venue for the World Games 2009. The monumental green building project was designed by Japanese architect Toyo Ito. The roof of the structure includes over 8,800 solar panels.
In terms of power generation, apparently the stadium is able to generate the power it requires to run, and on days when there are no events it’s able to feed excess power into the grid. The roof can potentially generate 1.14 gigawatt hours of electricity every year, enough to power up to 80% of the surrounding suburb when the stadium is not used.
It would certainly be great to see more of the large buildings being built around the world take advantage of clean technology in similar ways. It also begs the question: how many existing commercial buildings could potentially be retrofitted with solar panels to generate at least some of their own power? Commercial buildings often seem to have quite a lot of unused roof space.
I’m sure as new innovations occur in the solar industry over the coming years, it will allow for many new applications of solar energy into building construction. For instance, if solar cells become inexpensive, very thin, and could be deployed as flexible sheeting, or even as solar paint, it’s difiicult to see how solar technology wouldn’t start to be incorporated into many buildings. Just a thought.
