For what is believed to be the first time in the southern U.S., “peel and stick” solar laminates have helped a new house achieve official Passive House certification, meaning that the structure is designed to use 90% less energy than a conventional home. The laminates were manufactured by Whirlwind Solar, … [continued]
143 meters tall, rising above the crowd in Central London, Strata SE1 (or “the Razor” as it is popularly called, due to its sharp, angular design), is the first skyscraper in the world “to have electricity-generating wind turbines built into its core design ‘fabric’.” Michael Ricciardi of Planetsave … [continued]
Grist is reporting that the Obama administration has tried and failed to stop Fannie and Freddie from putting up a roadblock to low-cost clean energy financing through PACE programs. Here is my suggestion to make Fannie and Freddie stakeholders, to make PACE a win-win-win-win. The administration had invested $100 million … [continued]
As school districts across the country struggle with budget cuts, the solar energy industry is offering a solution in the form of financing for low cost solar energy installations. It’s a perfect match: many schools have large expanses of flat, unshaded roofs and the buildings are in use mainly during … [continued]
The Army has a green roof and the Air Force has a green roof, so it was only a matter of time before the Navy got its green roof, too. Construction on a new energy efficient green roof at Naval Station Norfolk just got under way earlier this month. In … [continued]
In yet another example of the U.S. military leading the civilian world into a healthier and less fossil fuel reliant future, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is aiming to qualify for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification for the new energy efficient office complex at Fort … [continued]
Residents of Orange County, Inland Empire, and the southern part of New Jersey have joined Los Angeles to become the newest areas of the U.S. that now have access to a 15% group discount on home solar energy installations. The discount is offered by 1BOG (One Block Off the Grid), … [continued]
The House version of the climate bill, Waxman-Markey’s ACES included a national building code (Section 201, page 214) which would have led to a 75% reduction in national energy use from buildings. Yet it is not in the Senate’s climate and clean energy bill, the recently unveiled American Power Act. … [continued]
In a program designed to reduce California’s peak afternoon grid demand, the CPUC this month moved about 2,000 PG&E customers – large commercial power users with a demand over 200 KW – to a new pricing structure that charges more in summer afternoon hours, and less in off-peak hours. [social_buttons] … [continued]
Bringing bioengineering to architecture, UCBerkeley Professors Luke Lee in Bioengineering and Maria-Paz Guttierez in the architecture department are pioneering a new type of thin film building membrane, creating a material structured at the nano and micro scale that can substitute for energy used for climate control in buildings. In a … [continued]
