MNRE Office Gets LEED’s 4.1 Platinum ‘Green Building’ Certification

MNRE Office Gets LEED's 4.1 Platinum 'Green Building' Certification

The Akshay Urja Bhavan, hosting the office of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has now bagged the LEED 4.1 Platinum certification for ‘Green Buildings’. The building, unique in many senses, imbibes renewable energy and energy efficiency measures among others, paving the way towards sustainability.

The certification was recently handed over to the MNRE by the LEED team to MNRE Secretary Bhupinder Bhalla. Designed on the principles of ‘green building’, the edifice allows maximum daylight to enter into the office to reduce the dependency on lights during day time. Adequate ventilation also reduces the over dependency on the Air Conditioners.

On the other hand the rooftop solar and the unique vertical solar panels mounted onto its southern facade boosts maximum energy generation from non-polluting sources. The ministry in its social media post in 2022 said that solar power alone generates around 1 MW of power per day.

“The aesthetically & sustainably designed building of #mnreindia incorporates 1 MW Grid Connected Solar Plant installed on the rooftop and the southern side wall of its headquarter Atal Akshay Urja Bhawan, New Delhi. This plant has a potential to generate 1.5 million units per year,” MNRE had said in 2022. 

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a global green building certification programme. It was developed by the US Green Building Council (USGBC). LEED uses third party verification to issue certificates to buildings which comply with their parameter of green building. 

LEED 4.1 certification is given to the buildings that ensures that all its stakeholders benefit from the design and operations, ensures environmental, economic and social benefits, reduces greenhouse gas emissions among others. 

The green building design of the Akshay Urja Bhavan has been done by Edifice Consultants while the Jakson Group also aided to the supply of their clean energy equipment to boost the production of clean energy in the building to cater to its power demands. The building also uses energy efficiency measures to reduce the power demand. The Akshay Urja Bhavan is also one of India’s net positive buildings which produces more renewable energy than the total power requirement of the building.