Green Building : Jetson Green

Matching Modern with Energy Efficiency

I'm in Huntington Beach this weekend taking a little r&r and didn't realize how much of the housing here is built like the townhomes above: with an urban feel -- tightly together with at least 2-3 levels.  These townhouses are located on 19th Street in Santa Monica and called Green on 19.  Three are already sold with the remaining two ready to go.  Green on 19 was designed by Jesse Bornstein to provide modern living while supporting the global community's need for energy efficiency. 

Martin Eberhard Illustrates Tesla Roadster's Solar Synergy

Martin Eberhard calls it "Solar Synergy" -- an apt phrase for the benefits derived from having an electrical car and a home that's powered by an extensive solar PV array.  Eberhard was a founder of Tesla and he just received his shiny new Founders' Series Roadster.  It's an incredible car, don't you think?  As you ogle its curves -- it's the embodiment of pure innovation, try to recall what I said recently in the article about the Green Building Aspects of the Plug-in Toyota Prius.  In that article, I made the statement that "buildings might just replace gas stations."  Actually, I should be more assertive:  buildings will replace gas stations.  And if you'd like to see a more defined example as to how that will happen, make sure to read about Eberhard's 5.2 kW photovoltaic system and all-electric Tesla Roadster. 

[Updated] Gore Challenges Nation to 100% Renewable Energy Within 10 Years

Not unlike John F. Kennedy's goal to land a man on the moon, Al Gore challenges the nation to produce every kilowatt of electricity through wind, sun, and other earth-friendly sources within 10 years.  Here are some links ...

[+] The (Annotated) Gore Energy Speech [NY Times]
[+] Former V.P. Lays Down a Green Gauntlet [WSJ]
[+] Gore sets 'moon shot' goal on climate change [AP]

Sopogy Shrinks CSP For Efficient, On-site Use

It seems like there's a new, cutting-edge technology in the limelight everyday and today is no exception.  You've heard of CSP -- concentrated solar power, right?  Well Sopogy has been in R&D for several years perfecting their MicroCSP technology.  They developed the above pictured application for commercial, industrial, and small utility uses.  MicroCSP takes traditional, large scale, open faced, desert, parabolic trough CSP panels and shrinks them down to 25% of the size.  The trough is between 12 and 18 feet long and is meant for distributed energy solutions from 200 kW to 20 MW.  It can be used on-site, too, whether on a roof or adjacent to a building. 

Covalent Solar to Commercialize Low-Cost Organic Solar Concentrators

The innovators of this new technology, if they get it into production, may just be the green building revolutionaries of tomorrow.  At the end of the week, MIT engineers published research of new technology showing that the sun's energy could be harvested from a large area, such as a window, and concentrated at the edges by solar cells.  With this so-called luminescent solar concentrator, the potential for low-cost electricity seems almost within reach.  Technically, here's how it works: 

[Video] GM Installing $78 M World's Largest Solar Roof

Earlier this week, GM announced that they were adding the world's largest, rooftop, solar photovoltaic power installation to its car assembly plant located in Zaragoza, Spain (a factory that manufactures Opel vehicles for sale in Europe).   When the project is completed in the fall of 2008, the solar installation will have 85,000 solar panels covering about 2,000,000 sf of roof space.   Bloomberg further reports that the $78.5 million installation will avoid about 7k tons of emissions per year.

What About the Solar Corridor, Mr. Pickens?

It's clear our country is reaching what future generations will see as a watershed moment as it relates to our current energy situation and how we handle it.  In the U.S. alone, buildings account for roughly 70% of electricity use and 39% of energy use, so any discussion of our energy future naturally implicates the built environment.  The current state of discussions on our energy future has brought together some incredible minds and one of those is the great T. Boone Pickens, an expert in recognizing scarce resources and future energy trends.  Just today, he announced his efforts relating to the PickensPlan -- a plan he explains himself in the above video.

Now, I think Mr. Pickens is definitely probing one of the better ways to alleviate our dependence on foreign oil, but I also think he's skipping over an important aspect of this discussion on our country's energy mix. 

Stunning Eco Home To Be First Andalusian Zero Carbon Footprint House!

The team at Diseño Earle was kind enough to pass along some info and images of their stunning design of The Eco Home -- a knockout that's aiming to be the first 'zero carbon' footprint home in Andalucia, or even Southern Spain for that matter!  D Earle designed the home with two objectives in mind: (1) zero carbon footprint, and (2) reduce operating costs to almost a self-sufficiency level.  The 6995 sf home, which is absolutely enormous, will be built with 75% less waste than a traditional design and operate 80% more efficiently than a similar sized home.  And although the home design was constrained by the narrow, non-flat site, you can tell there was no restraint in creating the ultimate, luxury, green pad. 

Nation's Largest Single-Building Solar Energy Project Planned for Atlantic City

Atlantic City Convention Center has just signed a 20-year agreement with Pepco Energy Services to have a 2.36 megawatt solar roof installed on the building.  When completed by the end of this year, the project is projected to be the largest single-building solar energy project in the United States.  That's 13,321 photovoltaic panels covering roughly two-thirds of the building AND a savings of roughly $4.4 million in electricity costs over the 20-year deal. 

Super Efficient SolarDuct Co-Generates Electricity and Heat Energy!

Conserval Engineering just announced the release of their newest product, SolarDuct PV/T, which is a rooftop solar PV system that goes beyond generating renewable energy from on-site solar power.  With the SolarDuct PV/T system, solar panels are mounted on metal collector panels that channel excess heat from the solar array into the building's HVAC system.  As a result, this system, which is part photovoltaic and part thermal, can generate electricity and put heat to use when heat is needed in the building.