Germany Builds First Solar City

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A city in Germany was made specifically to run solely on solar energy. What is incredible is that this  solar city produces four times more energy than what the city consumes. We have heard about solar roads but Germany has gone further and build the first solar city.

To generate electricity for large cities through renewable sources like solar has been so far a challenge, given the large areas required to place the solar panels. But a city in Germany has incredibly achieved what seemed the impossible. It not only has made itself self-sufficient in energy, but in fact has become a net producer of energy – all thanks to a localized approach for adopting solar power.

The city located in Freiburg, which is actually made of two modern cities -Sonnenschiff and Solarsiedlung – were designed and build to be solar cities and not as usual as an afterthought. Each house is fitted with large rooftop solar panels that double-up as sun shades. In the near future  with technology moving so fast, the next generation of solar panels will be  in the structure of the buildings itself. The panels point in the right direction of the sun and it should be noted that the buildings follow the Passivhaus standards of green building technology.

The cities have been designed by architect Rolf Disch. Together with the latest photovoltaic technology for the panels that make them highly efficient, and use of phase-change materials and vacuum insulation for the walls of the buildings that provide optimum thermal performance, the cities are able to generate four times the power which they consume.

This three minute video will take you into these modern solar-cities which are leading the way to cleaner and more efficient energy.

Solar as an alternative to the polluting coal-fired power is a ray of hope to our planet’s delicate environment that is stretch already. Germany is leading by example, showing  how people themselves can own up the process of transitioning from conventional methods of energy generation to cleaner alternatives.

 

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