The Building
The 25,000-square-foot (2,300 m2) facility is powered, in part, by a fuel cell and a micro turbine, which turn natural gas into electricity. In addition, the building's photovoltaic solar roof tiles harness the solar power generated by the sun to create useful energy. MAREC then uses a nickel metal hydride battery system to store some of the energy produced by these sources for use during peak energy consumption periods.
The building was also constructed using many alternative and renewable building materials including flooring surfaces produced from fast-growing bamboo and recycled tires, and rigid wall surfaces made from pressed wheat. These materials were used to conserve and recycle valuable natural resources.
Read more about this topic: Michigan Alternative And Renewable Energy Center
Famous quotes containing the word building:
“The Times are the masquerade of the eternities; trivial to the dull, tokens of noble and majestic agents to the wise; the receptacle in which the Past leaves its history; the quarry out of which the genius of today is building up the Future.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
—Bible: New Testament, 2 Corinthians 5:1.