ThyssenKrupp Elevator Equips Boston Technology Building

An energy retrofit and renovation is made to 5 Channel Center’s historic, 100-year-old building.

Earlier this year, ThyssenKrupp Elevator Americas announced its contribution of one of its synergy 300 S seven-stop elevators to the Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems (CSE) Building Technology Showcase in Boston’s Innovation District. Fraunhofer CSE is performing an energy retrofit and renovation of the historic, 100-year-old building at 5 Channel Center to transform it into a research and demonstration facility for advanced building-energy technologies.

The building will be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold certified when completed in December. CSE researchers will evaluate the reliability and effectiveness of the technologies incorporated into the building, helping technology developers improve their products with building-integration and other applied research.

The synergy elevator has a 4000-lb. capacity and travels at 200 fpm. The size and capacity permits oversized products to be transported. Part of ThyssenKrupp Elevator’s machine-room-less portfolio, the synergy elevators are efficient, compact, permanent-magnet gearless machines. Coupled with efficient drives, the system uses less energy than traditional elevator equipment. The elevator will generate power for use by the building and its regenerative-drive technology. Energy created by the elevator during braking can be fed back into the building’s electrical grid rather than being dissipated as heat into the machine room.

Brad Nemeth, director of Sustainability for ThyssenKrupp Elevator Americas, said:

“ThyssenKrupp Elevator is privileged to collaborate with Fraunhofer CSE and excited to be part of such a pioneering project. We share in the research-based mission and educational vision of the building and look forward to [the] insight and knowledge that will be achieved as a result of this project. We are thrilled to showcase and further study our industry technology in an environment focused on energy efficiency and sustainability innovation.”