Travel

Norway's 'Svart' to Become World's First 'Powerhouse' Hotel by 2021

A rendering of a planned Norwegian hotel, Svart, which will be located at the foot of the Svartisen glacier on Norway's Helgeland coastline.
(Snøhetta/Plompmozes)

At a Glance

Planners for a proposed Norwegian hotel hope to build the world's first energy-positive "powerhouse" hotel by 2021.
The circular 'Svart' will be located at the foot of the Svartisen glacier on Norway's Helgeland coastline.

A design group in Norway hopes to build the world's first energy-positive "powerhouse" hotel by 2021.

If plans go accordingly, "Svart" will be nestled at the foot of the Svartisen glacier on Norway's Helgeland coastline, about 1,000 miles north of Oslo.

What sets this "powerhouse" hotel apart is its ability to harness enough solar energy to not only be self-sufficient but to produce a surplus of energy that will be shared with the grid.

Norway will one day have nine powerhouse hotels in the country. Svart is the first.

To meet the criteria of being a powerhouse, a building must "produce more renewable energy than it uses for materials, production, operation, renovation and demolition" over its lifetime, according to the company's website.

Owned by Arctic Adventure of Norway and real estate company MIRIS, the circular hotel was designed by the architecture firm Snøhetta. Once completed, the hotel will consume 85 percent less energy than other modern hotels, according to the website.

Located above the Arctic Circle, the hotel will be afforded upwards of 20 hours of sunlight during the summer months that will be harnessed by locally produced solar panels located on the roof of the complex. According to CNN, the circular shape of the hotel is a byproduct of extensive research on maximizing solar output in the region.

The hotel will refrain from using air conditioning in the summer and use geothermal energy to power in winter.

The hotel will also be built primarily out of local materials like wood and stone, which reduces transportation energy use and gives off lower greenhouse gas emissions than steel and concrete, according to the press release.

The circular design of the hotel that will rest partially on land and on columns resting on the bottom of the pristine Arctic waters provides panoramic views of the glacier and fjord. It also offers guests the "experience of living in close proximity with nature." "Building in such a precious environment comes with some clear obligations in terms of preserving the natural beauty and the fauna and flora of the site," said founding partner Kjetil Trædal Thorsen in a press release.

"It was important for us to design a sustainable building that will leave a minimal environmental footprint on this beautiful Northern nature," Thorsen said. "Building an energy positive and low-impact hotel is an essential factor to create a sustainable tourist destination respecting the unique features of the plot, the rare plant species, the clean waters and the blue ice of the Svartisen glacier."