Is this the future: homes covered with algae that use sunlight to generate enough energy to heat every room in the house?
In one town in Germany, it’s not so much the future but the present. A unique building in Hamburg ‘wears’ around 200 square meters of algae covered panels. When sunlight falls on the Bio Intelligent Quotient (BIQ) building, photosynthesis causes the microorganisms in the algae to multiply and give off heat.
This is captured to heat the building’s water (to around 40 °C) with excess stored in saline tanks in the basement, while the algae biomass is harvested and converted into biogas.
As well as providing energy, the algae – which is taken from the River Elbe – absorbs CO2 and provides natural shade from sunlight.
According to German firm Arup, one of the backers of the BIQ project, the algae panels currently provide around half of the building’s overall energy needs… and it would be perfectly possible to make the building 100 percent self-sufficient with the addition of solar panels on the roof to power pumps and heat exchangers.
To live a totally zero emissions lifestyle, all the occupants then need do is recharge their Nissan LEAF EV in the garage overnight.
So what's stopping it from happening? Cost. At the moment, the upfront investment needed to install the 2cm thick algae panels is a hefty €1,865 per square meter… but the benefit of zero energy bills and cleaner air might make it all worthwhile in the long term.
Picture credit: via Fast Co.Exist
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