Ciralight caught the attention of a few attendees at this year’s Greenbuild 2007 exhibition. Their flagship product, SunTrackerOne, is free-standing, solar-powered, and completely self-contained. SunTrackerOne has three mirrors that track and reflect the sun into buildings through a thermal barrier, light well, and diffuser. It’s different than passive lighting because it collects more light and diffuses it more effectively throughout a building. This lighting system is a major green innovation to keep an eye on, especially since Ciralight touts a seductive 15 – 35% return on investment on energy savings alone.
Last week, former President George H. W. Bush installed a 33-foot tall, Skystream 3.7 wind turbine to provide energy for the Bush’s Kennebunkport home. The Bushes were courted by Southwest Windpower, one of the forerunners in small-wind innovation, and after looking at the pros and cons, they decided to take the plunge. The turbine is connected to the grid and feeds excess power to the system.
Since the home is their summer home, it will probably have a substantial credit from all the energy they’re feeding into the system during the winter. The Bushes decided to purchase the turbine for financial and environmental reasons, but they’re also setting a good example, too. Via Portland Press Herald.
You may have heard about a huge mall, entertainment, tourist project in central New York called Destiny USA. It’s quite the scheme that’s been in planning for many years. I just caught news of some of their phase I and II plans for green building and energy. For the 1.3 million sf Phase I, they retained Tangarie Energy to place sixteen, 5 kW drill-bit shaped wind turbines in the parking lot, which will produce roughly 64,000 – 84,000 kW hours of clean energy. They also want to be 100% fossil fuel free and energy efficient, so we’ll probably hear more specific details in the future. The turbines are designed to work well in lower wind speeds and should provide about 30% of their energy needs.
Phase II will start in 2009. For that, they’re planning a 1,300+ key hotel tower and conference facility, which will be built to LEED Platinum certification. The unique looking hotel project, shaped almost like blades of grass, will generate electricity from its solar panel facade and hydro-electric turbines (using rainwater collected on the roof). Once finished in 2012, it is planned to be the tallest building in upstate New York.
This is the ASAP House, a House About Saving A Planet designed by Laszlo Kiss. Like many green designs generated these days, this home will be a net zero energy home — it will produce as much energy as it uses over a certain period of time. To do that, the home will have good insulation, Energy Star lighting fixtures, a 10 kW photovoltaic array, and a geothermal heating and cooling system. Currently, a prototype ASAP House is being built for Sag Harbor, New York. Just last month, the factory was moving along well on three modules that will end up completing the home.
The ASAP house will cost roughly $250-265 psf, depending on site conditions, and is being designed with LEED certification in the works. It is anticipated that the finished home will be about 2,500 sf, with 4 bedrooms, and 2.5 bathrooms. It’ll be fun to follow the blog progress and see the finished product. At that point, we’ll officially have one more prefab contender, and more particularly, one that can service the Northeast!
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