Tag Archives: Renewable Energy

Masdar City Launches Phase 2 Master Plan

The fascinating cleantech evolution of Masdar City continues! Pushing the limits of urban design and community building, Masdar City is pressing forward in its pioneering quest for the highest quality of life with the lowest carbon footprint. Setting a new international precedent for sustainable urban planning, Boston-based CBT is presenting its award-winning Detailed Master Plan…

UL Courting Solar Market With New Acquisition

This article was originally published on Planetsave Independent global testing and certification body UL (Underwriters Laboratory) has acquired renewable energy engineering services and support firm, AWS Truepower for an unspecified sum. Underwriters Laboratory (UL) announced its AWS Truepower acquisition will strengthen its full lifecycle solutions. “There is strong alignment between the two brands,” said Jeffrey Smidt, vice president…

Facebook Spends $269 Million On Headquarters

According to Jack Cookson, a research analyst at BuildZoom, his company’s business specialty involves collecting all building permits from around the country, a daunting venture which sometimes reveals interesting results on companies like Facebook. A search recently led company researchers to Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, writes Cookson,  “…and we couldn’t resist investigating what has…

Passive House Recognizes Net Zero, Plus Homes

passive house - energy plus home

Passive House is an international building standard developed by the Passive House Institute (PHI), which is located in Darmstadt, Germany.  Building to the Passive House Standard recognizes buildings which have been optimized through passive measures and components such as insulation, air-tightness, heat recovery, solar heat gains, solar shading and incidental internal heat gains.  Buildings which…

World’s First Building Integrated Solar System Generating Electricity & Heat

Originally published on Renew Economy. A small terrace house in the inner Sydney suburb of Glebe is hosting what is believed to be the world’s first building integrated solar system that generates electricity as well as heat. The array combines thin…

A Variety of Sustainable Home Options: Modular Lifestyles and Nueva Vida III

Off-grid Modular Lifestyles' Camper

Two different types of environmentally sustainable homes are being incorporated into neighborhoods or developed as their own neighborhood community across the country giving people the choice to not only be green but to be entirely sustainable in their living situation. They are Modular

GUEST POST: Different Types of Solar Panels

Guest Post: Solar panels, formed from several types of photovoltaic cells, can be manufactured from a variety of different materials – most of which being crystalline silicon. Over a hundred different manufacturers produce photovoltaic cells all over the world.

Bahrain World Trade Center by Atkins

As sustainable design becomes a more common practice, it is the aesthetic appeal and technological advances which are used in collaboration with these practices that make each building more inspirational. The Bahrain World Trade Center (BWTC) in Manama, Bahrain is a beautiful example of sustainability meets design. It was designed by Atkins with the goals…

Piezoelectric Elements Can Turn Highways into Green Zones

Astonishing new advances in clean energy production are happening worldwide with the experimentation and understanding of piezoelectric technology.

Natural Building 101: Building a Cob House

What is cob? Cob building dates back hundreds of years ago, and cob houses built over 500 years ago in Europe are still inhabited to this day. That’s pretty dang impressive considering the simple nature and composition of the material: buckets of wet clay and sand are mixed by foot (or by horse, oxen, concrete…

It’s Time to Rethink Tub Sizes

As I mentioned in my KBIS Report, I was struck by the sizes of bathtubs on display at this year’s kitchen and bath trade show. Though green was king thoughout most of the convention, companies that pitch themselves as catering to a luxury market seem to be sending the message that if you have enough…

Ban on Garbage Disposals? Really?

In a move that had many residents bewildered, the Raleigh, North Carolina, city council voted to ban garbage disposals in all new construction and to prohibit residents from replacing broken garbage disposals. The ordinance, which took effect this week, has its roots in over 100 large sewage spillovers in the last three years within the…