Construction is nearly complete on a new and innovative building in the US, which has been designed to generate its own electricity.

The environmentally-friendly building has been dubbed The Delta and was put together by private firm Voltaic Solaire, in cooperation with Ikea, Sharp, Samsung, Eemax and Kingston Block.

Originally proposed back in 2010, the building will feature a bed and breakfast facility, alongside restaurants and apartment spaces.

Built in on the corner of Hamilton Avenue and 9th Street in the Carroll Gardens district of New York, the structure will also serve as a showcase for green building technologies and is widely expected to provide a marker for future carbon-neutral and net-zero energy construction plans.

Solar Powered Building

Costing around $700,000 (£445,000) to build, the Delta is designed to utilise both solar and wind energy to generate heat, electricity and hot water.

Solar panels adorn two sides of the building, with a total of seventy panels flat against the structure. An additional 12-and-a-half hang above the windows and on a metal rack attached to the roof.

These solar panels provide approximately 12 megawatt-hours of electricity each year, which equates to around 25 per cent more than the building would be expected to use. An additional power generated is sold onto a local power grid, which the building will be able to draw from in less sunny weather conditions.

Elsewhere, everything that has gone into the design of the building is environmentally-focused, with the front façade of the Delta built using sun-deflecting red bricks made from recycled glass and cement.

New York Solar Building

This is also evident in the “thermal brake” system deployed in the structural design of the building. In this instance, a one-and-a-half inch space is created between the red brick exterior of structure and any Cinder blocks and insulation. This additional layer helps trap cool air in the summer and heat in the winter. Double-pane windows with thick rubber seals also provide extra heat savings.

Lighting has also been designed to environmentally friendly standards with 40 energy-saving LED light bulbs fitted to the ceilings of the buildings five floors. A roof-mounted cylindrical wind turbine also provides some structural power.

The most advanced system of all comes with the hot water supply. This is managed via a series of vertical glass tubes on the Delta’s western wall. Containing a mixture of water and trimethylene glycol, when heated by the sun, this chemical warms up water which is stored in a large cylindrical tank in the shared hallway of the building – thus allowing for warm showers and baths.

Alternatively, in cold weather, guests can flip and switch and enjoy water heated by the building’s electricity reserve. The Delta was an expensive project to develop, but investors estimate that the solar panels fitted to the structure will have paid for themselves within three-and-a-half years time. The structure opens this September.

Image Copyright AngMoKio Courtesy Wikimedia Commons