Solar architecture

Solar architecture is the integration of passive solar, active solar or solar panel technology with modern building techniques. The use of flexible thin-film photovoltaic modules provides fluid integration with steel roofing profiles, enhancing the building's design. Orienting a building to the sun, selecting materials with favorable thermal mass or light dispersing properties, and designing spaces that naturally circulate air also constitute solar architecture.

Initial development of solar architecture has been limited by the rigidity and weight of standard solar power panels. The continued development of photovoltaic (PV) thin film solar has provided a lightweight yet robust vehicle to harness solar energy to reduce a building's impact on the environment.

The idea of passive solar building design first appeared in Greece around the fifth century BC. Up until that time, the Greek's main source of fuel was charcoal, but due to a major shortage of wood to burn they were forced to find a new way of heating their dwellings. With necessity as their motivation, the Greeks revolutionized the design of their cities. They began using building materials that absorbed solar energy, mostly stone, and also started orienting the buildings so that they faced south. These revolutions, coupled with an overhang that kept out the hot summer sun, created structures which required very little heating and cooling. Socrates wrote, "In houses that look toward the south, the sun penetrates the portico in winter, while in summer the path of the sun is right over our heads and above the roof so that there is shade." From this point on, most civilizations have oriented their structures to provide shade in the summer and heating in the winter. The Romans improved on the Greek's design by covering the southern facing windows with different types of transparent materials. Another simpler example of early solar architecture is the cave dwellings in the South-Western regions of North America. Much like the Greek and Roman buildings, the cliffs in which the indigenous people of this region built their homes were oriented towards the south with an overhang to shade them from the midday sun during the summer months and capture as much of the solar energy during the winter as possible.

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