Source: www.ecofriend.org
Eco Factor: Sustainable city concept designed to be powered by renewable energy.
A team of scientists, engineers and financers in Japan have begun work on a project that will make the Burj Khalifa in Dubai look tiny. The team is aiming to build a tower that is 1km tall and has a vertical farm balanced on a floating concrete lilypad. The team believes that by the year 2025 the necessary technology should be ready to start the building process.
Dubbed the Green Float Project, the development calls for the construction of artificial rafts never built on this scale. The city is being envisioned as a place that grows just like a lily floating on the water. The city will be built in an equatorial region where sunshine is plentiful and the impact of typhoons is minimal.
The development includes “A City in the Sky,” which will be an area rising 700-1000m above the baseline, with no strong winds and a pleasant temperature of about 26-28 degrees Celsius. This city will be a residential zone with 30,000 inhabitants. For those who don’t want to live high in the sky, the development will include a “Waterside Resort,” where low-rise townhouses are bases for living. The Waterside Resort will provide residential space for about 10,000 inhabitants.
Apart from the residential complexes, the Green Float Project features the “New Industry Incubation Office and Plant Factory.” This area will provide a work zone for about 10,000 people. The engineering giant Shimizu is planning to build the tower from super-light alloys derived from magnesium in seawater. Once an island with a diameter of 3km is created, each new floor of the tower will be built at ground level, pushing the previous floor down into the sea. When the 1,000-meter mark is reached, the tower will be raised to its full height.
The development will be carbon negative and CO2 emissions will be minimized with the use of efficient transportation and distribution systems. Power will entirely be generated using a range of natural energy sources including space solar power satellites, ocean thermal energy conversion, waves, wind and solar power.
