Solar thermal energy

2010-02-22T22:23:00.001-08:00

Solar thermal energy is a technology for harnessing solar energy for thermal energy and it is different from photovoltaics, which convert solar energy directly into electricity. There are many applications of solar thermal energy such as drying, heating and water distillation.

Many solar thermal technologies have existed for centuries and have established manufacturing bases in many sun-rich countries. Manufacturing can be done on a small scale without using expensive equipment. In 2008 solar thermal energy industry in Europe has grown over 60%.

Self Sustainable Cities

2010-02-22T22:23:00.000-08:00

There are a number of planned cities that were never built. Welthauptstadt Germania, the projected renewal of the German capital Berlin, part of Hitler's vision for the future of Germany after the planned victory in World War II is probably the most well know example. A town called Broughton, in Nova Scotia was expected to be a boomtown when first settled, but was mostly abandoned when mining operations failed. Townsend, Ontario was supposed to have a population of 100,000 people by the year 2000 but they couldn't find enough people to work at the nearby Stelco steel plant and so the community has stagnated over the years. The famous American architect and historical figure, Frank Lloyd Wright, proposed a concept for an urban or suburban development and a Utopian vision of a new type of urban landscape late in his life called Broadacre City which was never build. A collegue of Frank Lloyd Wright, Paolo Soleri, however, found more success venturing into this direction.

Paolo Soleri (born June 21, 1919) is an Italian-American visionary architect with a life-long commitment to research and experimentation in design and town planning. He established Arcosanti and the educational Cosanti Foundation. Soleri is a distinguished lecturer in the College of Architecture at Arizona State University and a National Design Award recipient in 2006. Paolo Soleri is also widely known for popularizing a concept called Arcology. Arcology, from the words "ecology" and "architecture," is a set of architectural design principles aimed toward the design of enormous habitats (hyperstructures) of extremely high human population density. These largely hypothetical structures, called "arcologies," would contain a variety of residential and commercial facilities and minimize individual human environmental impact. They are often portrayed as self-contained or economically self-sufficient.

The multitude of ecological problems arising today have become unavoidable. In more recent years, our rising concern of issues such as global warming, rising energy costs as well as other environmentally centered issues can be view in parallel with rising popularity of films about environmental issues such as "The Day After Tomorrow," "Zeitgeist," "The 11th hour," "An Inconvenient Truth" and National Geographic's "Aftermath Population Zero." Masdar City is not only widely excepted, but applauded as well simply due to the fact that Masdar City is a tangible project for a planned city. Paolo Soleri's concept of arcology has seen much publicity simply because the Try2004 Hyperstructure has been featured on the Discovery Channel's Extreme Engineering. Futuristic concepts for planned cities were once viewed as ecentric and grandiose, but nowadays such ideas are not viewed as far-fetched nor extreme simply because the world is ready for them.

Rolf Albern

Solar thermal energy

Self Sustainable Cities