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2014 AGENDA: EXPO 2017 AND FUTURE ENERGY
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2014 AGENDA: EXPO 2017 AND FUTURE ENERGY
EXPO 2017: ‘Future Energy’
Low-carbon technology will be at the forefront of Kazakhstan’s EXPO 2017, as the country
aims to show that an economy with a big stake in fossil fuels can make a meaningful transition
towards renewables, cut carbon emissions, and save precious resources
‘F
uture Energy’, the theme
for Kazakhstan’s EXPO
2017, encapsulates the
country’s plans to
combine wind, solar and hydro powers
with energy efficiency in order to push
wide-reaching economic growth, develop
homegrown clean technologies and
reduce carbon emissions.
The exhibition’s logo incorporates a
wind turbine into its design – a motif
for the government’s aim to generate
half of Kazakhstan’s electricity from
renewable sources by 2050 and use its
fast-growing capital, Astana, as a testing
ground for sustainable technologies.
With more than 75 per cent of the
world’s population expected to be living
in urban centers by the middle of the
century, fast-growing cities such as
Astana could serve as a model to others
on how to integrate wind and solar
energy, low-carbon transport and green
buildings into the urban landscape
and reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
Construction of the expo site
is expected to begin ahead of the
summer, three years before Astana
hosts the event, which will fall
on the 20th anniversary of the city
becoming Kazakhstan’s capital.
EXPO 2017 will present an opportunity to find new
ways of using green energy
Between June and September 2017,
three to five million visitors are expected
to visit the exhibition, which will be
housed in a spherical pavilion spread
out over 24,000 square metres.
Among the defining features will
be what the project’s architects have
called a ‘transformative skin’, which
will reduce the loss of heat from the site
and cut down on glare from sunlight.
Photovoltaic solar panels will help
save energy and increase energy output
of the building at the same time.
Meanwhile, a ring of wind turbines
around the expo site will also make
it self-sufficient in energy, acting as a
kind of mini-power station that will
also supply a local grid.
Lasting benefits
These features will be a permanent
rather than a temporary structure,
according to Robert Forest, a partner
with Chicago-based architects firm
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill, which last
year won the international competition
to design the expo pavilion. “The crucial
difference of this project is that it is not a
demonstration. EXPO 2017 will form the
basis of a truly sustainable community
that will serve as a legacy for Astana and
Kazakhstan,” Forest has said.
By keeping the expo buildings and
green technologies in place for future
use, Astana is aiming to buck the trend
of recent exhibitions, such as Shanghai,
which removed most of its vast complex
after EXPO 2010.
Kazakhstan wants the pavilion and
park to become an easily recognizable
landmark for the city, housing a center
of technology, science and culture, and
new office and living space, as well as
becoming a buzzing, energetic, selfsustaining district that attracts students,
entrepreneurs and young families.
The use of renewable technology
and low-carbon buildings will provide
a showcase for wider efforts by the
Kazakh government to improve the
energy efficiency of its housing stock
and integrate renewable energy and
green transport into the fabric of its
dynamic capital.
Intelligent infrastructure
With a nod to similar projects in Bogotá
and Johannesburg, Astana is planning
a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) network –
high-speed bus corridors that allow
large numbers of its 800,000-strong
population to be whisked through
the city and avoid streets clogged
by the growing number of cars.
Also in preparation for the 2017
event, the Kazakh capital will be
investing 450 million tenge ($2.5 million)
into a green taxi fleet supplied by a plant
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© ADRIAN SMITH + GORDON GILL ARCHITECTURE
2014 AGENDA: EXPO 2017 AND FUTURE ENERGY
in the north of the country owned by
the South Korean automaker SsangYong.
The ‘Eco Taxi’ will use a mix of liquefied
gas and propane-butane mixture (SNG),
which will help cut carbon emissions
and particulate pollution and bring
Astana’s taxi fleet up to the international
standards that are found in world cities
such as New York and London.
Global standards on energy efficiency
will also apply to new residential
buildings that are erected before and
after EXPO 2017.
Capital standards nationwide
Nurlan Kapparov, the Minister for the
Environment and Water Resources in
Kazakhstan, said in March that both
domestic and foreign construction
firms would benefit from the tighter
standards and the use of advanced
green technologies, such as smart
meters, energy-efficient air conditioning
and cavity wall-insulation.
The capital’s location in the north
of the country – just a few hundred miles
from the Russian border – means that
the city’s homes need considerable
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amounts of efficient heating during the
winter, when icy winds can swirl across
the steppe and send temperatures
plunging to well below freezing.
Sweltering summers mean spikes
in demand for air conditioning, putting
additional pressure on Kazakhstan’s
increasingly antiquated coal-fired power
stations and transmission grid.
The deployment of energy-efficient
technologies in the country’s relatively
new capital –
where most
buildings have
been erected in
the past two
decades – will
also play a role in
reducing energy
use in other major
cities, such as Almaty, where the housing
stock often dates back to the Soviet era.
The EXPO complex is centred on a spherical building
designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture
for new residential housing blocks. Last
year, Verny Capital, a Kazakh investment
management group, said it would invest
$300 million in Kazakhstan’s first
environmentally sustainable building
complex that would meet Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design
(LEED) standards on green buildings.
Among the defining features
will be what the architects have
called a ‘transformative skin’
A world-leading vision
So far, the greenest standards in the use
of energy efficiency have been seen in
commercial buildings, but these are
likely to prove a valuable testing ground
Astana’s dramatic skyline, a hybrid of
Kazakhstan’s futuristic vision and the
imagination of some of the world’s
best-known architects, has enabled the
country’s showpiece capital to take the
lead in urban low-carbon technologies.
The test is whether the country as
a whole can respond to the challenge.
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