Before it became the world’s largest geothermal power-producing site, The Geysers was known as the “Gates to Hades,” drawing visitors with its healing waters, steam vents, and wild legends.
Did you know… there’s a financial institution that’s banking on geothermal energy?
Located in Las Tablas, Madrid, Spain, the headquarters of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A.(BBVA), La Vela “The Sail”, is 93 m (~305 ft) high and has 19 floors. It resides in a 114,000 m2 (~1,227,086 ft2) office and service building complex, which includes seven more three-floor buildings. It is also heated and cooled using geothermal energy.
The headquarters were built with the sustainability criteria necessary to be deemed LEED gold certified, which is the strictest sustainable construction standard. La Vela and the other buildings were built using low environmental impact materials and have remote energy consumption monitoring technologies.
There are multiple renewable energy systems being used throughout the complex. Along with solar and water collection/recycling systems, the buildings have also installed closed-loop geothermal systems. The installation of these systems curbs the complex’s energy consumption by 8.3% and carbon emissions by 7.6%.
Sources
https://www.bbva.com/en/la-vela-bbvas-new-architectural-landmark-in-madrid/
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