The building’s owner, Taipei Financial Center Corp (TFC), is putting in $1.9 million to give this 101-story building a green makeover.

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This industrial scale chiller from the Chinese company Broad Central Air can convert many different kinds of waste heat into air conditioning. The waste heat can come from many industrial sources, including what the Chinese site calls “town gas”  - methane from town landfill, collected and burned to generate heat.

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The greening of Comfort Inn is thanks to a partnership with Pursol Solar Systems, which will install an 83 kilowatt photovoltaic system under its Solarize financing program, basically guaranteeing the hotel a 20% savings on its electricity bill without any up-front costs.

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The solar capacity of the National Mall in Washington D.C. has increased exponentially in just a week as teams of college students from 20 international schools hurriedly reassembled their submissions for the fourth ever Solar Decathlon, a competition in which students must create “the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house.” The three-week event kicked of yesterday with an opening ceremony that featured a speech from Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who announced an additional $87 million solar-targeted award for solar energy projects. Here’s a look at some of the impressive solar submissions and the opening day events.

“Decathletes,” as the decathlon participants are called, began construction on October 1, 2009, a full week before the start of the competition. Each house was designed to be deconstructed and then reassembled for the event. The components of each house travel from each team’s school and are reconstituted as the solar-powered homes lining “Decathlete Way” on the National Mall.

Image Credit: Stefano Paltera from USDOE on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

Finishing Touches

Solar Decathlon teams hail from all over the continental United States as well as Puerto Rico, Germany, Spain, and Canada.

Here, a member of Team Spain puts the finishing touches on the roof its modern-style solar home. An inverted glass pyramid outfitted with photovoltaic panels and solar water heating collectors rests atop the house via a ball-and-socket mechanism. A solar tracking device orients the pyramid structure as the sun changes throughout the day to achieve the highest efficiency.

Image Credit: Stefano Paltera from USDOE on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

Energy Efficient House, Water Efficient Plants

The Solar Decathlon is designed to call attention to the enormous energy challenge that the world faces as well as empower young people to create solutions to the world’s energy problems. The competition has six main goals: 1) to educate; 2) to raise public awareness about clean energy, energy efficiency, and solar, in particular; 3) to hasten the entrance of solar technology into the marketplace; 4) to foster student collaboration among varying academic disciplines; 5) to promote an integrated approach to new construction; and 6) to demonstrate the potential for Zero Energy Homes, which produce as much energy as the consume.

Here, two Cornell University students work on the landscaping outside of “The Silo House,” which was designed to evoke “the character of a post-agrarian meadow.” The team, which boasts 150 members and the school’s third Solar Decathlon submission, is a true testament to “integrated collaboration” combining the creative geniuses of so many to produce a house consisting of three silos that is a net-zero energy user.

Image Credit: Stefano Paltera from USDOE on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

A Wall of Solar

In order to be eligible for judging, each house must be exclusively powered by the sun and energy efficient. Each house must also meet the following criteria: a) attractive and livable; b) maintain a comfortable, healthy interior environment c) contain adequate light; d) power household appliance and home electronic e) provide hot water; f) balance energy production and consumption.

Placing the last solar panel on the roof of their house, Team Germany’s two-story cube shaped house features an 11.1 kw solar façade made out of 40 single-crystal silicon roof panels and 250 thin-film copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) panels on the rest of the exterior. With such a technology intense design, the house cost somewhere in the range of $650,000-$850,000.

Image Credit: Stefano Paltera from USDOE on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

A View with a Purpose

As the name suggests, there ten solar contests in which the teams must compete. The contest categories include: architecture, market viability, engineering, lighting design, communications, comfort zone, hot water, appliances, home entertainment, net metering. The Net Metering contest is worth the most points and uses a utility meter to see how much net energy a given house produces or consumes throughout the competition. The most points are allocated to team who produce more energy than they consume.

The window arrangement in Ohio State’s home not only affords a crystal clear view of the Washington Monument, it is passively designed to take advantage of natural ventilation and day light. Dubbed “Ohio-centric,” by its creators, the house is made from native Ohio materials, contains Whirlpool appliances, and reclaimed barn wood.

Image Credit: Annie Coghill on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

Education on the Run

The Solar Decathlon is a teaching moment for the participants as well as the public. Throughout the competition the solar homes are open to the public in order to teach visitors about the importance of clean energy, solar technology, and energy efficiency. In addition to the contests, the event sponsors offer both solar energy and energy efficiency workshops for consumers and industry professionals. For homeowners, two daytime education exhibits displays the anatomy of a solar house and explain the types of “smart choices that can deliver us into a clean energy future.”

Here, a jogger takes advantage of an impromptu opportunity to learn about solar power and the Solar Decathlon from a University of Louisiana decathlete standing in front of the team’s home, BeauSoleil, which means “sunshine” in Cajun French.

Image Credit: Stefano Paltera from USDOE on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

Perfect Lighting

DOE Secretary of Energy Steven Chu welcomed the decathletes to the capitol city to start off the three-week decathlon. Taking advantage of the opportunity and the receptive crowd, Chu announced the latest round of DOE clean energy award money, this time $87 million to “support the development of new solar energy technologies and the rapid deployment of available carbon-free energy systems. A full $50 million of the award is come from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), also known as the economic stimulus package, and is targeted towards projects that are working to make solar cost-competitive by 2015. The money will support 47 projects in four categories: Solar America Cities special projects, solar installer training, high-penetration solar deployment, and research projects at DOE National Laboratories.

Here, Chu joins Team California in front of “Refract House,” which also employs a passive solar design that is ideally suited to sun-soaked California. The house is more than just an educational tool, with information panels that pose key questions and system that allows guests to access the answers via their cell-phones, the abode is equipped with enough information technology to function as a teacher, as well.

Image Credit: Stefano Paltera from USDOE on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

Let the Games Begin

The solar-powered festivities continue today and through October 18, 2009, when the winner is announced. You can visit the U.S Department of Energy Solar Decathlon home page to learn more about the event, the teams, the contests and to see more solar-inspired photography and multimedia.

Here, all twenty teams collect on Decathlete Way in front of their fully constructed and fully functional solar homes. After two years of hard work, these students have not only created incredible solar projects that are prepared for the intense level of competition, they have also gained skills that will shape the world’s clean energy future.

Image Credit: Stefano Paltera from USDOE on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

Ettenson told me that the funding comes from the part of the budget that California’s regulated utilities may use to invest in conventional electricity. This may include “negawatts”or energy efficiency measures. This is not just cheaper than building new plants and transmission, but also easier to implement, as it is not subject to the NIMBYism and transmission issues that has impeded development of utility scale solar and wind projects that California utilities must add to meet RPS requirements of getting 20% of its energy from carbon-free sources by 2010. Currently it is at 14%.

This giant leap in funding could jump-start the new low-carbon economy in California; helping grow all the businesses that create cutting edge efficiency in cooling and heating, lighting, building materials, windows, insulation, appliances and smart grid technologies that reduce energy use.

Ettenson gave me some examples of uses for the funding in practical terms:

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Global Solar Center just finished a comprehensive, 50-state survey of solar incentives and adoption. Who leads the nation? It is surprising. As they say, it is the states who were “solar laggards” that are now “solar leaders”. But incentives aren’t the only issue.

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In the quest to create new green jobs, we have the opportunity to take existing jobs and make them green.

Every city has architects, engineers and construction divisions. In conventional circumstances the activities these employees undertake can burn considerable natural resources. But in San Francisco, we’re working to turn these traditional municipal positions into environmental champions.

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What do the Westfield shopping centre, Canary Wharf and a Victorian museum have in common? They are all at the vanguard of a move to encourage biodiversity in buildings that could take on an unprecedented scale if guidelines published today are adopted.

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A groundbreaking study has proved that man-made light sources can change natural light cycles, triggering abnormal animal behavior that often leads to injury and even death.

The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, confirms that polarized light pollution can cause confusion in creatures that rely on light ‘cues’ to navigate through their environment, with many animals also thrown off course by light reflecting from buildings.

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Saving energy in buildings is both one of the easiest things that can be done, as well as one of the hardest. The principles for creating a building that needs less energy and operates more efficiently are well known. Most building technology is fairly basic and easy for even non-experts to understand. This makes it simple. We don’t have to wait for expensive, high tech solutions (though they can contribute greatly and will provide new flexibility and compelling possibilities for building better buildings in the future). Heavily insulated buildings can be easily constructed with readily available and well known technology. Adding more insulation to walls is easy, though there is a cost. Consumers and building owners need to become more aware of the long term costs of operating a building, and give consideration to more than just the initial construction costs. And overcoming economic considerations and taking a long-term view is the hard part.

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Blade Runner

(The interspersed quotes in this article are taken from the Architecture 2030 "Think You’re Making a Difference?" page.)

Architecture 2030 is a foundation established by architect Ed Mazria in 2002. Mazria famously created the pie chart graph (see illustration) showing that buildings represent 48% of the total energy used in this country. As the largest single segment of energy use, responsible for nearly half of all energy use in the country, buildings need to have more attention paid to them. Architecture 2030 is dedicated to reducing all fossil-fuel, greenhouse-gas-emitting energy use for buildings by 2030, with an immediate 50% reduction (as compared to the typical energy use for particular building types), and phased increases in the reduction percentage until the 100% target is reached in 2030.

Buildings are responsible for more of an impact on the environment than cars or other elements of energy use because they last so long. As you drive around cities in the country, almost all of the vehicles on the road were built within the last 20 years. But the majority of the buildings are at least that old, and many are decades older. Buildings last a long time. They need to be substantial in order to accomplish their purposes. This makes them long-lasting, but they also are slow to adopt new, more efficient technologies. Replacing them is also incredibly expensive and extremely material and energy-intensive. So making sure that our buildings are built efficiently and with an eye to the future is crucial.

For building operations, carbon offsets are one way many people are looking to reduce the impact of their energy use. And while those steps can help to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide, the scale of even large scale efforts dwindles to near insignificance when compared to the amount of carbon that building energy use puts into the atmosphere.

"Home Depot is funding the planting of 300,000 trees in cities across the US to help absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions…

The CO2 emissions from only one medium-sized (500 MW) coal-fired power plant, in just 10 days of operation, will negate this entire effort."

Conservation steps can be helpful. Cutting your lighting energy usage by switching from incandescents to compact fluorescents is a step that many sources strongly advocate. (I’ve even mentioned it once or twice myself.) The energy savings are dramatic, and can cut energy use by more than half. Multiplied across millions of households, this amounts to a huge energy total, but lighting is just a portion of total building energy use.

"If every household in the US changed a 60-watt incandescent light bulb to a compact fluorescent…

The CO2 emissions from just two medium-sized coal-fired power plants each year would negate this entire effort."

Lighting energy reduction is a good first step, but there needs to be more done to build on these improvements. In addition to having all buildings be built to neutral GHG-emissions standards by 2030, they are also calling for an equal amount of existing building area to be renovated to matching levels of efficiency. Many steps are being taken presently to increase the efficiency of existing homes and buildings, but often, these steps are just doing less-bad than they are turning things around to the point of doing good. These are positive steps, certainly. But we need to continue to press for further improvements still.

"Wal-Mart is investing a half billion dollars to reduce the energy consumption and CO2 emissions of their existing buildings by 20% over the next seven years. If every Wal-Mart Supercenter met this target…

The CO2 emissions from only one medium-sized coal-fired power plant, in just one month of operation each year, would negate this entire effort."

Even if all of Architecture 2030’s goals are met, there will still be billions of square feet of buildings that have not been renovated by 2030 that will still be needing fossil-fueled energy supplies for their operation. Joshua Hill’s recent article noted the latest imperative from Architecture 2030 which calls for the elimination of coal as the "silver bullet" necessary to stop global warming. In 20 years, it is possible to begin to make significant changes in our energy infrastructure, so that renewable power sources represent an increasing portion of the energy being generated. Those developments, combined with increasing the energy efficiency of the buildings we are building, can help turn our energy profile to one that does not put such a carbon burden on the environment.

Image source: Architecture 2030

Finishing Touches

Solar Decathlon teams hail from all over the continental United States as well as Puerto Rico, Germany, Spain, and Canada.

Here, a member of Team Spain puts the finishing touches on the roof its modern-style solar home. An inverted glass pyramid outfitted with photovoltaic panels and solar water heating collectors rests atop the house via a ball-and-socket mechanism. A solar tracking device orients the pyramid structure as the sun changes throughout the day to achieve the highest efficiency.

Image Credit: Stefano Paltera from USDOE on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

Energy Efficient House, Water Efficient Plants

The Solar Decathlon is designed to call attention to the enormous energy challenge that the world faces as well as empower young people to create solutions to the world’s energy problems. The competition has six main goals: 1) to educate; 2) to raise public awareness about clean energy, energy efficiency, and solar, in particular; 3) to hasten the entrance of solar technology into the marketplace; 4) to foster student collaboration among varying academic disciplines; 5) to promote an integrated approach to new construction; and 6) to demonstrate the potential for Zero Energy Homes, which produce as much energy as the consume.

Here, two Cornell University students work on the landscaping outside of “The Silo House,” which was designed to evoke “the character of a post-agrarian meadow.” The team, which boasts 150 members and the school’s third Solar Decathlon submission, is a true testament to “integrated collaboration” combining the creative geniuses of so many to produce a house consisting of three silos that is a net-zero energy user.

Image Credit: Stefano Paltera from USDOE on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

A Wall of Solar

In order to be eligible for judging, each house must be exclusively powered by the sun and energy efficient. Each house must also meet the following criteria: a) attractive and livable; b) maintain a comfortable, healthy interior environment c) contain adequate light; d) power household appliance and home electronic e) provide hot water; f) balance energy production and consumption.

Placing the last solar panel on the roof of their house, Team Germany’s two-story cube shaped house features an 11.1 kw solar façade made out of 40 single-crystal silicon roof panels and 250 thin-film copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) panels on the rest of the exterior. With such a technology intense design, the house cost somewhere in the range of $650,000-$850,000.

Image Credit: Stefano Paltera from USDOE on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

A View with a Purpose

As the name suggests, there ten solar contests in which the teams must compete. The contest categories include: architecture, market viability, engineering, lighting design, communications, comfort zone, hot water, appliances, home entertainment, net metering. The Net Metering contest is worth the most points and uses a utility meter to see how much net energy a given house produces or consumes throughout the competition. The most points are allocated to team who produce more energy than they consume.

The window arrangement in Ohio State’s home not only affords a crystal clear view of the Washington Monument, it is passively designed to take advantage of natural ventilation and day light. Dubbed “Ohio-centric,” by its creators, the house is made from native Ohio materials, contains Whirlpool appliances, and reclaimed barn wood.

Image Credit: Annie Coghill on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

Education on the Run

The Solar Decathlon is a teaching moment for the participants as well as the public. Throughout the competition the solar homes are open to the public in order to teach visitors about the importance of clean energy, solar technology, and energy efficiency. In addition to the contests, the event sponsors offer both solar energy and energy efficiency workshops for consumers and industry professionals. For homeowners, two daytime education exhibits displays the anatomy of a solar house and explain the types of “smart choices that can deliver us into a clean energy future.”

Here, a jogger takes advantage of an impromptu opportunity to learn about solar power and the Solar Decathlon from a University of Louisiana decathlete standing in front of the team’s home, BeauSoleil, which means “sunshine” in Cajun French.

Image Credit: Stefano Paltera from USDOE on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

Perfect Lighting

DOE Secretary of Energy Steven Chu welcomed the decathletes to the capitol city to start off the three-week decathlon. Taking advantage of the opportunity and the receptive crowd, Chu announced the latest round of DOE clean energy award money, this time $87 million to “support the development of new solar energy technologies and the rapid deployment of available carbon-free energy systems. A full $50 million of the award is come from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), also known as the economic stimulus package, and is targeted towards projects that are working to make solar cost-competitive by 2015. The money will support 47 projects in four categories: Solar America Cities special projects, solar installer training, high-penetration solar deployment, and research projects at DOE National Laboratories.

Here, Chu joins Team California in front of “Refract House,” which also employs a passive solar design that is ideally suited to sun-soaked California. The house is more than just an educational tool, with information panels that pose key questions and system that allows guests to access the answers via their cell-phones, the abode is equipped with enough information technology to function as a teacher, as well.

Image Credit: Stefano Paltera from USDOE on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

Let the Games Begin

The solar-powered festivities continue today and through October 18, 2009, when the winner is announced. You can visit the U.S Department of Energy Solar Decathlon home page to learn more about the event, the teams, the contests and to see more solar-inspired photography and multimedia.

Here, all twenty teams collect on Decathlete Way in front of their fully constructed and fully functional solar homes. After two years of hard work, these students have not only created incredible solar projects that are prepared for the intense level of competition, they have also gained skills that will shape the world’s clean energy future.

Image Credit: Stefano Paltera from USDOE on Flickr under a Creative Commons license