August 25, 2008—The US Green Building Council (USGBC) announced during the course of the 2008 Olympics that the Olympic Village in Beijing also won gold of its own. According to a newsletter from the US Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), the village won a gold-level certification under a pilot program that recognizes the use of green building principles in neighborhood development.
The Olympic Village won the LEED Gold certification for integrating the principles of smart growth, New Urbanism, and green building into a comprehensive system for neighborhood design. It is the first Olympic Village to receive LEED certification and is the first international project to be certified under the LEED for Neighborhood Development pilot program, notes EERE.
Among the technologies used in the village is the SolarWall, a device from Conserval Engineering, that preheats ventilation air by sucking it through holes in a solar-heated plenum mounted on an exterior wall. The village also features a combination of the SolarWall with solar photovoltaic panels, called SolarWall /a>, to produce both solar preheated air and electricity at the same time.
