Link: http://www.vagazette.com/articles/2010/09/04/news/doc4c817252eebe1999173891.txt

John and Elizabeth Hollis installed a nine panel photovoltaic solar roof which was up and producing power in two day. The Hollis family story is a testament to how quickly a solar array can be installed.

When Scott and I installed our eighteen panel solar energy system we were up and running in a week. Solar installations can be simple to install. Check it out for yourself.

Link: http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/081710_sunshower.cfm

Tulane University Professor Judith Kinnard and Assistant Professor of Architecture Tiffany Lin have designed an award winning off grid home.
This two bedroom, two bath house is designed to be able to be function without water or electrical hook-ups.

A simple earth friendly design that can provide housing in areas of natural disaster. Congratulations Judith and Tiffany.

Link: http://nevadasagebrush.com/blog/2010/09/07/faculty-member%E2%80%99s-home-grabs-green-attention/

Yes we can design smarter, cleaner homes that generate power to heat themselves, make their own electricity and recycle the water that they use. We are inspired by the smart design that went into creating this delightful home. It is creative design pioneers like John Sagebiel and his wife Mary Cablk that are showing us the way to a sustainable future.

Cheers John and Mary..we celebrate you and thank you for bringing this vision to fruition. May there be many others who follow.

This year the Biennial Solar Decathalon sponsored by the US Departmant of Energy was won by an inventive group of students from Darmstat, Germany. Team Germany has taken the first place prize in the Solar Decathalon for the second time in a row.

Rob Fierro of GreenandSave.com has written a great piece about Team Germany's winning Cube House.

What set Team Germany's design apart from the other entries was their creative use of solar panels on the roof as well as on the walls. Thin film solar cells were attached with aluminum strips as a siding creating the potential to generate 11,000 watts of safe, clean energy from the sun. This amazing house generates enough safe, clean solar energy to power all of it's electrical systems including hot water heat plus another house just like it. Yes, that't righ this house is designed to produce twice as much energy as it uses.

That is the way forward to a hopeful future. Congratulations.

After 18 years of dreaming, planning, calculating and saving this home's solar array turned out to be a final gift of love this man gave to his wife. Arnie Garlick spent much of his life planning for his home to be a net zero energy home and lived long enough to see the installation completed. Three weeks later he succumbed to lung cancer.

The solar array will continue to provide energy and be a tangible legacy that his widow Cheri can enjoy for the next twenty five years.