What's Sunday evening without a little Ty Pennington and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition?  I don't catch it every week, particularly if the Dallas Cowboys are on, but the program is a juggernaut for helping people in real need.  So we caught news that ABC was planning a green show for April 6 and were put in touch with the team doing a 5 kW solar photovoltaics installation.  They're using the Akeena Andalay system, which we mentioned previously was a Top 5 Green Building Product (as voted by the builders).  The Akeena Andalay system is pretty sharp, and Linda Panitz, a solar evangelist herself, was on the set with Akeena to install the system.  Here's our Q&A:

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This is seriously lowbrow, and I’m embarrassed to join the likes of celebrity media, but ole’ Mrs. Parker has something interesting to say about green building.  She’s building a new home in San Antonio, Texas, and wants to go as green as possible.  But the builders have been giving her flack.  Apparently, the problems were so bad that the project was nearly at a standstill.  She said, "Everything is going to be environmentally friendly. We are going to install solar panels for part of the house. All our water is recycled for the lawn for irrigation. It was a fight with our builders; a lot of people don’t want change. But it’s worth it." 

You can do most things for the right price, so I can’t understand the issue here, but maybe she flat out hired the wrong builder.  Lesson is, get people with experience.  Green building is high-quality building.  And Joe Dirt probably can’t do it.  Maybe we can blog about her home when she’s done?  Eva?!

The excellent bloggers at Scribe Media just posted a video of Miami-based architect Chad Oppenheim.  Oppenheim is the designer of COR Tower, an eco-tower that has wind turbines at the peak.  Please note, this post and the video have been modified slightly to protect confidential information not released publicly.  We respect that.  Enjoy!

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