Photovoltaic news and pv jobs

The ECO house hunter

08. September 2010 By:  The Architect

Who does not want to live in a zero carbon or eco apartment/house? I would. If I had the money to invest in something like that.

Darren Low, a visitor at the EU PVSEC, who sat next to me at the cafe on the rather full first level of the halls (interestingly labeled Nivel or Level 2), told me that he is hunting for potentially interesting concepts for BIPV or building integrated photovoltaics.

He tried to install ordinary solar panels on his rooftop and was not very successful. Practically, he said, he needed about USD$40 to 50 thousand dollars. Money that was not in his bank account now. Therefore, he decided that he is happy just paying the monthly bills for the moment, with wonderfully pollutive fossil fuel energy.

An eco-apartment? Where would that be possible, with low bills and funky designs? I asked around. Darren could move to Canada, I suppose. There is a EcoTerra house in Quebec, which gives him the opportunity to live the eco way. It is supposedly also Canada's first such house, according to the rumors and murmurs I hear at the EU PVSEC.

Bosch Thermotechnology, according to the very perky Bosch people at their stand, plugged the electricity and technology for the EcoPlusHome in New Brunswick. So why is the entire world not switching over to eco homes, if they are so easy to build and so efficient as most people say and think? pv magazine, which I flipped through, recommends me apartments in Singapore in the Gardens by the Bay project (But I cannot eat spicy food... hmm).

I mean when the price of oil and other natural resouces go sky high, then as an eco home owner, I can laugh at the rest of the naysayers who stuck to oil. These companies also give me 25 years warranty right? And my panels BPIV or otherwise are also invincible to weather right? I mean Walt Disney World's EPCOT Energy Pavilion is still going ok today with its 1982 photovoltaic installation. Correct me if I am wrong, please.

And someday, according to a typically sleek property marketer guy in an expensive suit (what he is doing here at EU PVSEC, I want to know too?), my property value will also go very high up when everyone decides in ten years, 'Hey I want to be ecological and want to buy my house for crazy prices'. Still the initial costs are too high for my pocket, or for any individual person like myself.

What if the subsidies go away, if the prices fall in the next ten years? What will we do without subsidies? So many questions for one person. And my home faces the forest. That according to some nice people I met here, is a curse for my solar dream. Energy capture cannot be typically optimized in the lovely shade I enjoy from my forested surroundings.

Another low point for me in Valencia (after the not so lovely sandy winds that blow in my face as I try to get to EU PVSEC, without looking like the sandman) - I am an architect by the way - is if I were to design a poor system, without the right heavy technical experience and know-how, then I'll probably have to redesign again in five years when I realize 'Oops, it doesn't work'. Do I have no hope? Back to my shadow.

I suddenly found someone who told me that I can use shadow-votltaics: manual tracking combined with shadow systems. The first ray of hope for a hopeless architect. I have to get an exact shadowing analysis and high temperatures are a no-no for crystallines.

I am learning a lot here from random people, whom I hope are not pulling my leg. Someone told me to go take a look at the Mont Cenis Academy in Herne, Germany with 1MWp, which is supposed to be a very pretty BIPV system. I note it down. I am heading off now to see if SolarFrameWorks are here. They have the BIPV CoolPly system and I want to know about it. I shall talk to more people and perhaps someday, I shall design something fantastic with my knowledge gained here. For now, I am satisfied.