Sustainability right in the middle of the desert

In two years, students and tourists will be heading to the middle of Dubai's scorching desert to learn about the emirate's sustainable energy projects.

Special bus and metro services are being planned to attract them by 2017 when the Solar Innovation Centre (SIC) of the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) will rise from the desert, overlooking the massive Mohammed bin Rashid Solar Park in Seih Al Dahal.

The four-storey building will be an ‘edutainment' centre akin to a gallery or museum for visitors to explore creative ideas and clean energy sources being used and that will be used in Dubai.

The building, with its striking free-flowing architecture, will itself be an example of integration of multiple sustainable projects under one roof, officials said during the recently held 17th Water, Energy, Technology, and Environment Exhibition (Wetex 2015).

An interactive glass model of the project was exhibited at the Dewa's stand to educate the public and industry experts about it.

"The Solar Innovation Centre is a sustainable architecture and a value-adding facility to the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park,” MD and CEO of Dewa Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer had said when the authority awarded the consultancy services to design and supervise the construction of the project in July. Ted Jacobs Engineering Group and Kettle Collective are currently working on the project.

"The landmark design celebrates the unique identity of the energy park reinforcing a sense of green Dubai as a leading example of sustainable development regionally and internationally,” Al Tayer noted.

Dewa has envisioned the centre as the main focal point for companies, researchers, university students, individuals working in the field of solar energy, as well as for developers and manufacturers of clean-energy technologies.

Explaining the details of the project to Khaleej Times, Marco Christiaan Janssen, acting director of Dewa Smart Grid Project Management Office, said the main objective of the SIC building is to showcase the entire spectrum of Dewa's sustainable projects as well as stand as a model of sustainable architecture.

"This will explain what exactly all our projects that we announce through the media mean ... how they work ... to the common people.”

Obviously, the SIC in the solar park also will have photovoltaics supplying solar energy to run the building. It is designed to get 100 per cent self-solar shading directly from above. "The sunlight will go directly inside the building through the glass façade during the day time. Most of the lighting is with natural daylight, and the artificial lighting used will be the most energy efficient ones.”

Exhibition and learning centres

Highlights of the building include an exhibition centre and a learning centre which will be on the first and the second floors respectively and a massive hologram screen running up to the fourth floor.

The centre will host different activities to teach students about technologies, climate change and its solutions and have more creative thinking for the future of Dubai. Visitors will also have the opportunity to develop their own design ideas at the facility.

On the topmost fourth floor, an observation deck will provide a panoramic view of the massive solar park.

While the SIC's surroundings will see rainwater harvesting and fresh vegetables being grown in the middle of the desert using treated water, the third floor of the building will house a café supplying these vegetables, the model showed.

Covered with high performing glasses that protect the building from the extreme conditions of the desert, the SIC building will also make use of curtains designed for achieving maximum temperature control inside the building.

With the comprehensive sustainable approaches, Janssen said, Dewa is trying to bring the energy consumption of the building down to an absolute minimum.

The authority will coordinate with the RTA to run special bus services to the site from the Mall of the Emirates Metro station. It is also planning to examine options to extend the Dubai Metro line to the solar park itself, he said.
Source: Khaleej Times