A few months ago the people of serene Fremont in Northern California began talking about the city’s latest green building, one that was designed to meet LEED Platinum and net zero standards. The building is expected to start a new page for green energy in California. Local officials and business representatives that have visited the building all express great enthusiasm for the benefits of green buildings. A good sign was the recent rain, which seemed like a small miracle after years of drought.
This modern three-story green building is located on a campus-sized area of 15.5 acres (62,726 square meters) on busy Fremont Boulevard and has become Fremont’s green energy landmark, as well as the new Delta America’s green headquarters. The grey exterior fence and square base appear calm and composed. Local plants that consume little water greet visitors at the front gate and their new emerging leaves show exceptional hospitality.
The colleagues of Delta Americas are busy greeting visitors with “Welcome to our new home!”. When the sun shines, the open interior space is as spacious, bright and warm as the smiles you see in the office.
Friendly staircases, shiny and spacious, appear to invite everyone to explore this new green, energy-saving building. Brightly colored red, yellow and purple sofas are situated throughout the building seem to ask visitors to sit down and relax. At one end of the building, a line of high-performance energy-saving products and solutions are waiting their turn to perform on the stage of Delta Americas.
“The new building provides a healthy work environment for employees with fresh air circulation and natural daylight,” said MS Huang, president of Delta Americas.
“Our entire Americas team is proud of Delta’s continuing initiative to build green buildings and to have a new headquarters for continued growth in the region,” Huang said.
The large ceiling windows and the movable ceiling allow spacious views of eye-pleasing scenery and visitors can feel the integration of both the indoor and outdoor environments. Amazingly, no one feels the heat of the bright California sunshine. This is due to the front-line heat insulation materials, insulated glass panels, and the excellent ventilation used in the design of the building. Additionally, at every corner, consideration for greater energy efficiency is incorporated to quietly improve the building’s environmental comfort and energy savings.
“The building also will be Net Zero, meaning it will produce as much energy as it consumes,” Huang stressed.
It’s not easy for even a certified green building to reach net zero as it requires efficient conservation of energy as well as meeting strict conditions of time, place and users. Only by aligning these elements can a building become self-sufficient in energy.
Asking colleagues at Delta Americas how this busy new headquarters will reach net zero, and their answers are confident that daily operations won’t be interrupted. The key lies in the full use of natural energy throughout the office building. Combined with Delta’s innovative energy-saving technologies the building’s self-sustainable energy use is within reach.
Among all of Delta’s 21 green buildings worldwide, this is the first to use geothermal energy. The ground source heat pump system at the new headquarters transmits the heat from the ground when the surface temperature is lower than 70°F/21°C; when it is hot and the surface temperature is high, the heat absorbed from the building is transmitted underground and is returned to cool down the building after being processed.
The ground source heat pump system is closely linked to the air-conditioning system, bi-directional radiant heating and cooling system and energy-saving VFDs with 92 miles (about 147 kilometers) of tubing underground in a field larger than five football fields and inside in the radiant floor and ceilings of the building. Flowing water inside the tubing enters underground for heating or cooling and then is distributed to each area of the building for heat exchange to maintain the ideal temperature.
This design enables a comfortable balance in the air and an even floor temperature inside the new building during both summer and winter. Compared to the use of conventional cooling tower/boiler system, about 60% HVAC energy consumption is saved. For colleagues at Delta Americas, the indoor comfort year-round will be something to treasure.
Looking at the active chilled beams and radiant floors where people walk, it’s hard to imagine the hidden complex integrated pipeline system providing heat and cooling. Once they realize the source of the building’s comfortable environment, people come away with an even deeper appreciation for Nature’s bounty.
