Building as Power Plant—BAPP

ABSTRACT

The Building as Power Plant (BAPP) initiative seeks to integrate advanced energy-effective building technologies (ascending strategies) with innovative distributed energy generation systems (cascading strategies), such that most or all of the building's energy needs for heating, cooling, ventilating, and lighting are met on-site, under the premise of fulfilling all requirements concerning user comfort and control (visual, thermal, acoustic, spatial, and air quality). This will be pursued by integrating a “passive approach” with the use of renewable energies. In addition, the project will achieve unprecedented levels of organizational flexibility and technological adaptability. The project has progressed though preliminary architectural design and engineering and 5 workshops (Ascending Energy Strategies, Floor-by-Floor Infrastructures, Interior Systems, HVAC Systems, and Cascading Energy Strategies). BAPP is designed as a 6-story building, located in Pittsburgh (a cold climate with a moderate solar potential), with a total area of about 6000 m2 which houses classrooms, studios, laboratories, and administrative offices. At present, the combined cooling, heating, and power generation option that is being considered for the demonstration building is a Siemens Westinghouse 250-kW solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). In this article, we will report a number of integrated solution scenarios and their energy performance.