Green Rascal Design

There has been a lot of solar talk around here in the last few days. On Thursday I went to a Business After Business event in Princeton, and I got talking with my GeoPeak Energy friends. They're pretty busy. I learned about some of their projects, and we discussed where things are going for them. It's always nice to see them, too. They're good guys.

Then I read this article about a Spanish solar company getting ready to build a 40 megawatt solar plant in West Sacramento. There are concerns about giant garter snake and Swainson's Hawk habitat, though.

The last interesting articles in the Smithsonian 40th anniversary issue were all about tech. Solar collection techniques mostly. I'd not heard about heliostats before, but they seem efficient and not too harmful to the environment... if the environment is a flat desert. I dig mirrors. They're old fashioned and useful. So you point a lot of big mirrors at a tall glass of water, and then you get steam. I hope these types of facilities don't interfere with wildlife, because if they don't that would be awesome. That's all I can say.

Can't you just hear the angels singing from Heaven? Well, okay me neither. But it looks pretty cool.

As you were.

The Smithsonian had an interesting article for July and August. The magazine is turning 40 this year, and to celebrate they looked 40 years into the future and described what life might be like in 2050. Their feature in this issue is "40 Things to Know," and I was just reading about populations. Apparently Suburbia is here to stay. I used to be dead set against suburbia and urban sprawl. But it seems people just don't want to move back into the cities. According to the Smithsonian, the US will gain 100 million people in the next 40 years, and the heartland will rise again after losing people and industries for the last few decades. Jobs have been moving to the periphery of cities for about 10 years. People in the suburbs express stronger ties to the community than those living in more urban areas. Another observation the Smithsonian offers is that "Americans are dubious about the planet's health."

I also read today that 1 Block Off the Grid is in my area now. So I signed up on their website to see what they're doing to help people go solar. We've been thinking about going solar for a while now, but from an architect's perspective solar panels are not at all attractive. I mean visually. I'm all for going solar. I just wish the panels weren't so horrid looking. Soon we will put some kind of solar collectors on the house, though. And I believe and hope that when we make these drastic green updates to our 110 year old house our neighbors will be watching. I know they watch every cotton-pickin thing we do currently. So hopefully when we get a new roof and a solar collection system the neighbors will be more likely to go solar themselves. If suburbia is here to stay, then it has to adapt and use renewable energy. Luckily suburbanites are a little bit like sheep. Once we provide an example the rest will follow. eventually. I hope sooner rather than later.

I'm working on a solar panel idea that is somewhat less ugly. At first when my husband said he wanted solar panels, I was dead-set against them. Then he suggested you can buy the collectors and make your own panels much cheaper. There is a significantly longer time commitment with this plan, but if there is any chance I can get a solar panel that fits the look of the house better than a 3' by 5' rectangle, I'm taking it! There is no way that I'm putting something so ugly on my beloved home. And you can bet if we put super ugly solar panels on our house the neighbors are going to be less than likely to follow suit. If I can get a nice looking design up there, then everyone will want what we got. Go Suburbia!