Sustainable Energy Management for Underground Stations

Nobody has ever asked themselves how much energy an underground station uses. Calculating escalators, lights and air-flow, the world average is around 550.000 kWh per year (equivalent to the electricity consumed in more than 200 households). Considering that in Europe there are 4412 stations, in America 2761 and in Asia 2685, a quick multiplication will tell us that the energy demand is 5,5 GWh per year.
This is why the European Union is contributing 2,8 million Euros for a project that, for the first time, will try to understand where this energy is used to find the best solutions for the stations.
The name of this 4,1 million Euuro project is Seam4Us (acronym of Sustainable Energy maNagement for Underground Stations) and is coordinated by an Italian company: Cofely Italia Spa.

The project started with a pilot station in "Passeig de Gràcia" in Barcelona and will take 36 months to complete. The first year is dedicated to study of how energy is consumed and how innovative technologies can compliment it. In the next year it's expected to install systems that will regulate light, escalators and optimize the ventilation depending on the presence of people (thanks to environmental sensors).




http://seam4us.eu

"Make It Black!" Tokyo Institue of Technology's Solar Paneled Building

What's better than a huge building, you ask? Another huge building that only consumes about half the power.
The Tokyo Institute of Technology's new Innovation building is covered with 4,500 solar panels, equaling a capacity near 650 kilowatts, and another 100 kilowatts of fuel cells.

Nice to see a leading university making moves. It would be great to see more universities doing so on their own, or through environmental councils like the U.S. Green Building Council in the US, where UCSB is among a few chosen schools participating in a broader pilot program to make significant amount of their facilities certifiably green.

Here's hoping they look nearly as cool as the Innovation Building.