NASA’s Ames Research Center broke ground this week on what it hopes will be the greenest government structure in the United States: a high-performance office building with zero net energy consumption and a $20.6 million price tag. It should be completed by the end of 2011.

The 50,000-square-foot “Sustainability Base” is expected to showcase the agency’s innovations originally intended to support human and robotic space exploration, such as sensor technology developed for NASA missions that will be incorporated into the new building.

“I like to think of it as the first lunar outpost on Earth,” said NASA Ames Director S. Pete Worden in a press release.

NASA officials anticipate the facility will receive a LEED-Platinum rating by using 90 percent less potable water than similarly sized buildings, radiant cooling, smart building systems, photovoltaic energy, and 72 geothermal wells with ground-source heat pumps.