Energy positive creature - the sustainable Powerhouse Brattørkaia office in Trondheim.

As the energy sector and building industry account for more than 40% of global industry's heat-trapping emissions combined, according to the World Resources Institute, modern society is challenged to come up with sustainable and energy efficient solutions, to get responsible for its personal environmental footprint. Snøhetta decided to make its own contribution and set a new standard for buildings of the future. The design miracle doesn't not only produce energy while functioning. The whole process of its construction, demolition and operation, including the embodied energy in the materials used to construct the building, took lees energy that the building will generate throughout the lifespan. Images: Dezeen Powerhouse Brattørkaia is located in Trondheim, Norway, 63° north of the Earth's equator, with the really unusual weather conditions. The sunlight intensity and the length of the daylight hours vary greatly from season to season which presents a great challenge for solar power generation. Still the building's upper facade and pentagonal-shaped roof are covered with a total of 3,000 square-meters of solar panels. To ensure these generate as much solar energy as possible, the form of the building was created by Snøhetta to ensure there is maximum exposure to the sun taking into account the environmental uniqueness. "Given the building's location this far north, the harvesting of solar energy is challenging as sunlight varies greatly across the day and seasons. The solar panels produce the most energy when the angle towards the sun is 90 degrees," explained senior architect Andreas Nygaard. Powerhouse Brattørkaia is claimed to produce more than twice as much electricity as it consumes daily, and will supply renewable energy to itself, its neighbors, electric buses, cars and boats through a local micro grid. Over a year, this amounts to a total of about 500 000 kWh of clean, renewable energy. In effect, the building "dually functions as a small power plant in the middle of the city". The building also accommodates an ample space for energy storage. From the outside, Powerhouse Brattørkaia's size is designed to complement the neighbouring buildings, while its angular form creates the feeling that the "building is bursting with energy".

Images: Dezeen