For the Beauty of the Earth: Solutions to NET ZERO ENERGY

The prime of objective is the introduce the importance of solar building integrated photovoltaic technologies to achieve net zero to the general public. Our sun is such a powerful source of energy and how we can optimized our effort in capturing the clean energy using products with no moving parts is vital. Apart from the environment concerns that has affected areas by fossil fuel, the days are over on cheap oil. Nuclear is costly, though it generate clean energy, the waste is a serious environment concern in the long run. It is better to do it as soon as we can in light of our coming generation and the planet that we are leaving behind to them. Especially, at the current energy and climate concerns, the building integrated technologies applications is the way to go because could convert the solar energy efficiency as high as from above 35% to 60% compared to regular panels which is around 17-18% subject locations. Initially, it show some of the project on the BIPV solar roof tile installations in different states US and parts of the world. Mainly on homes and BIPV modules on office parking and sound barrier in Europe. As one can see in the images, they are just like regular buildings and homes especially now, there are color options. There are showing of some major projects using building integrated solar modules like the Caltrain’s Headquarter in Los Angeles that got the Pritzker Award, Community Operation Center in San Diego got LEED Platinum Awards and numerous other awards, High rise building in Bern and office building, Switzerland. There are iconic projects like the Sun Sail won the Design prize in Glasgow, Austin Sunflower, Metlife Stadium solar ring, Active Energy Building won Energy Global Award, Future House USA, Water and Life Museum won the LEED Platinum Award plus numerous other awards and the Swiss Environment and Sustainable Museum Arena won the Zurich Climate Prize plus numerous other awards. On net zero energy, the book mentioned the first zero energy the company participate in Montana back when the solar BIPV roof tile initially released. The Cherokee Home in Raleigh, North Carolina where it got sizeable number of awards including LEED Platinum and Sullivan Estate of JK7 in Hawaii initially installed the Sunslate BITERS system and achieve net zero energy. In Virginia, a single family home built a patio with 2.7 Kw BITERS Sunslate with solar skylights. Their total size of the home is around 4,000 sq. ft. The utility bill cut into half. Therefore, a home of 2,000 sq. ft. could be net zero energy. A home in Wisconsin installed the Sunslate BITERS with a geothermal system, it managed to achieve net zero energy got LEED Gold Awards. A beat up 83 year old house overlooking a lake in Westchester County in New York renovated by installing Sunslate, they not only managed to achieve net zero energy, it turned out to be a very attractive home. It was named “Beauty and the Beach” and got numerous awards including LEED Platinum. In additional there are three magnificent homes, one already net zero energy while the other two could easily achieve net zero energy status.. BIPV and BIPVT technologies could also be applicable to handle transportation like the solar powered PRT(Personal Rapid Transit) system. It is a light weight autonomous vehicle that could carry the passenger directly to destination without a single stop and could carry up to around 4 passengers. One could order it through an I-phone. The vehicle could be waiting for the passengers when arrived the station. On the energy side, solar, hydrogen, electrolyzers and fuel cells or batteries could also be used as storage along the station and tracks. Another application could be greenhouses. Looking ahead, food growing is a serious concern due to climate change. Land could also be a main issue because today, 40% of the land are being occupied in agriculture. As the population continue to grow, we have to take care of ways of farming and water preservation. Translucent BIPV and BIPVT could come in handy on sun light exposures to plant and energy generation. Meanwhile, Conclusion and education Starting from elementary and all the way up professional level, some schools have already introduces the BIPV technology to their students by installing solar roof tiles when they renovated the school buildings on campus. Manuel Elementary School in Bern, Switzerland installed the MegaSlate from 3S Solar Plus. Kit Carson International Academy in Sacramento, California installed the Sunslate from Atlantis Energy Systems, Inc., Kankakee Community College in Kankakee, Illinois, USA installed the insulated translucent glass/glass modules from Atlantis Energy Systems, Inc. Rock Valley Community College awarded LEED Gold, Rockford, Illinois, USA installed the insulated glass/glass translucent modules from Atlantis, awarded LEED Gold. Utah State University installed translucent glass/glass modules from Atlantis awarded LEED Gold in Logan, Utah, USA, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada awarded LEED Platinum plus numerous other awards installed glass/glass module from Atlantis. Hopefully, the BIPV and BIPVT prices are coming down and will be more affordable. On higher education and implementation area, Columbia University, New York has a very broad range of programs in their Earth Institute which have recently started a Climate School. MIT, Massachusetts has a Center of Collective Intelligence where they have a Climate Colab. There they gathered more than 120,000 top climate professionals all around the world to work out solutions on projects to compete in solving climate problems. Recently, they have joined together with INNO/Centive which is a similar organization.