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From Forbes.com: Technology News:
Burlingame, Calif. - A Wal-Mart in Las Vegas may just be the prototype for the energy-sipping building of the future. Lit with light-emitting diodes and cooled by an indirect evaporative system that runs cold water through pipes under the floor, the supercenter consumes up to 45% less energy than the retail giant's other stores.
Over the next 15 years, commercial buildings in the U.S. are expected to become even more energy-efficient than the Las Vegas Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ), capable of producing as much energy as they consume.
That's the vision behind a new U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) "net-zero energy" commercial building initiative launched Tuesday. The program's goal, set forth in a section of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, is to get net-zero energy commercial buildings of all types up and running in the U.S. by 2025.
At the moment, however, this is not economically feasible. "You could build a building that's net-zero energy-efficient today, but the utility savings are not sufficient to pay back that investment over the life cycle of the building," says David Rodgers, the DOE's deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency.
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Re: Making Energy-Saving Buildings
