At this point, the technology exists for buildings to produce all the energy they need-and that needs to be the norm. Don't worry:It's not as hard as it sounds.

摘要

William Maclay, faia, has a mission: to make net-zero-energy buildings the new normal. "We have the technology, tools, and knowledge we need to do this right now," he writes in his book, The New Net Zero: Leading-Edge Design and Construction of Homes and Buildings for a Renewable Energy Future (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2014). "We can do it one home, one building, and one community at a time." Among the net-zero projects Maclay's 12-person Waitsfield, Vt., firm has designed: the firm's own office, in a renovated carriage barn; a traditional gable-roofed house in Newton, Mass.; and the first net-zero, LEED Platinum secondary school building in the United States. Completed in 2009, the Putney School Field House in Vermont achieves a staggeringly low energy use intensity (EUI) rating of 9 thanks to superinsulated walls and windows, a 36.8-kilowatt solar array, extensive daylighting, and air-source heat pumps for use in the winter. In fact, the building produces more electricity than it uses.