Renewable building products

PVs may be unable to reach 1% of global capacity in the near future
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ARCHITECT outlines the realities of renewable building products and technologies in the Gulf

The International Energy Group (IEG) is an international alliance of organizations created in 2008 to research advanced energy technologies in the GCC. A division of the international investment arm of SS Lootah Group in Dubai, IEG enjoys strategic partnerships with Fraunhofer, a leading European think-tank and R&D organisation, and the World Association of Industrial and Technological Research Organizations (WAITRO). The mandate of the IEG is simple: It aims to promote, develop and manage projects that can integrate and demonstrate clean/renewable energy in commercially viable ways. 

According to the first official IEG report entitled ‘Future Energy Scenarios’, the UAE has a power generation capacity of approximately 16GW. That number has doubled since 2000, increased a further 15% in the last two years and is projected to increase to 26GW sometime in 2010. The UAE (and several other GCC nations) continues to subsidise electricity for its residents and, to further complicate matters, two of the largest energy-consuming industries in the world – aluminium smelting and petrochemical production – are the veritable bread and butter of the Gulf nation.

It is a fact that buildings consume approximately 70% of the world’s total electricity, 40% of total energy and 40% of raw materials and, in doing so, produce an estimated 30% of all global greenhouse gas (identified as methane, CO2, nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases). These numbers even outweigh the amounts of greenhouse gas produced by deforestation, automobiles and livestock rearing.   
 
In a kind of ‘Part II’ to this issue’s earlier feature ‘Renewed Hope’, ARCHITECT examines the technologies and building materials that should continue to be used in the region and some that, given the current climate and energy requirements, perhaps should be considered.

TIMBER

Every year the world’s forests deliver up over 1.5 billion tonnes of timber for milling and industrial processing, not to mention, supplying fuel for about half its population. Because trees absorb carbon dioxide, if sourced sustainably, timber is the only building material available that boasts a positive rather than negative impact on the earth’s greenhouse gasses.

As a building material, timber offers a warmth and texture that is uniquely malleable as well as renewable and bio-degradable. That said, there are challenges to using it in this region. First, it’s a building material that is not historically associated with aesthetic beauty in the region. Second, timber is not a local material so it comes with significant embodied energy. Third, the weakening effects of the hot climate.

Jim Meyers, Middle East Manager of Calvert Company Inc., the US-based glued laminated timber manufacturer, assures consumers that timber doesn’t buckle, warp or break under the stress of region’s high temperature. Citing several of Calvert’s successful installations in Dubai Marina and Madinat Jumeirah, Meyers insists timber’s bad rap comes from poor preservation rather than inherent weaknesses in the material.

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DIMENSION STONE

Although a variety of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks can be used as building materials, the principal rock types throughout the industry are granite, limestone, marble, travertine, sandstone and slate.

Natural stones that can be selected, fabricated and polished to specific sizes, shapes and aesthetic qualities, dimension stone enjoys a very high profile in the Middle East. Unfortunately, several critics in the industry are quick to point out that the highest quality stone in this region comes straight from the best veins in Europe and Asia. Again, we run into an embodied energy surplus for a building material that is most likely going to be used on inside. 

Burmese Teak graces Dubai’s Monarch Hotel, Mall of the Emirates boasts tiger-eyed marble flooring and the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) features marble floors and columns. Marble in particular is being used so much in the region’s residential projects that one firm attests that 90% of its clients request large-scale marble applications.

CONCRETE

Throughout Europe and North America, several companies specialise in recycling concrete as a way of gaining sustainability points and reducing overall cost of the project. According to the US-based Portland Cement Association, construction and demolition waste in the US adds up to approximately 135 million tonnes annually, or about three pounds per person, per day.

While the UAE is a much smaller and younger building industry, the amount of concrete still going into infrastructure projects and the number of older developments being demolished to make way for newer ones makes a concrete recycling programme a worthwhile initiative. Often used as aggregate base beneath pavement, bedding for utilities, landscaping for water features and as aggregate for ready-mix concrete, recycled concrete also reduces the amount of material that is landfilled and the need for virgin materials in new construction. 

ALUMINIUM

Fact: Aluminium can be recycled infinitely without a measurable loss of metal quality or properties and at the current levels of production, known bauxite ore reserves will last for hundreds of years.

Aluminium is admittedly an odd inclusion on a list of renewable building materials, especially since the smelting process from bauxite ore to alumina to original aluminium is among the building industry’s most carbon unfriendly transitions. However, once original aluminium is created, the material quickly becomes the poster child for recyclability.

According the International Aluminium Institute, one kg of recycled aluminium can save up to eight kilograms of bauxite ore, four kilograms of alloy chemical products and 14-15 kilowatt hours of electricity.

Aluminium can provide everything in a building from interior/exterior panels to louvres to extruded sections to facades to the entire building envelope. “Everybody knows that aluminium is and will be the future of industry for many countries,” says Ali Khalaf, managing director of Reynaers Middle East. The sheer versatility of the material suggests he just might be right.    

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