Solar considerations in high-rise buildings

Abstract

One of the fundamental challenges in today's world is substituting fossil fuels with renewable energies. All the frequent practices have been intensified in order to utilize the earth and its environment as a source of energy. Hence, architects and planners have a special responsibility toward energy efficiency development. Here, the overall objective striven for is to introduce solar energy as a permanent renewable source in order to reduce energy consumption and building initial investment. Thus, the variable output of utilizing active and passive solar systems and their impact on the decrease of energy usage and total energy demands for cooling and heating buildings should be considered as the main objective of this research and the result could be a new definition of architecture and construction, so, this branch of industry can supply the necessary contributions for sustainable and viable development. Thereby, this study is mainly based on a theoretical approach supported by the outcomes of literature review and case study analysis from the solar design aspects. Finally, as skyscrapers are indispensable in modern cities and as they consume a great deal of energy, considering new ways of benefiting renewable energies can have a vital role in reducing building energy consumption. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.