China as our paradigm of environmental hope?

Courtesy of our friends over in the Old Empire comes this story (and video, if you click the link) of a concept building China is in the process of constructing. Positioned at a perpendicular angle to a consistent wind stream, this example of green-building-badassery has the ability to keep wind turbines spinning on its flat side and sunlight absorption on its concave side. Below is a design of the building with supplemental bullet points - both courtesy of the BBC, which is kind of like the CNN of Britain, only with credibility and sans all of this stuff.

1 - High temperature fuel cells complement the sustainable systems

2 - The outer skin controls glare and includes a photovoltaic system for energy

3 - Wind turbines generate power which can be fed to mechanical equipment

4 - The design incorporates a "high performance" building envelope

5 - An air displacement system relies on raised floors

6 - Cooling tower water passes through embedded tubes in the building

Our thoughts here at the tRBT is, although we don't necessarily trust all of the info that comes out of that commie bastard county of China, this is certainly a step in the right direction, especially coming from a nation that is responsible for polluting the skies of other nations. Expect a lot more concepts like this one to come out in the near future before any building actually gets done, though. You know how this goes.

However, it wouldn't be a bad idea to set one of these bad boys up right along the Mon, or anywhere else in our fair city. Any yinzer waiting for a bus down on Penn Avenue in February knows the epic, soul-crushing wind tunnel that is the whole of downtown Pittsburgh.