via Mother Nature Network
Modern planners are building compact cities, believing tightly controlled zones are better for the environment.
New research suggests the opposite: urban sprawl might be a better option, with solar power fitted to suburban houses and the adoption of electric cars transforming the energy needs of a city.
Research in Auckland, New Zealand – the largest urban area in the country and a city built for the age of the motor car – shows that solar panels fitted to the average suburban home can produce enough power for that household, extra to charge an electric vehicle, and still generate enough watts to export a surplus to the grid.
Power for the urban core
Adopting a citywide approach to fitting solar panels and providing charging points for cars would enable suburban homes to provide most of the power for the city center as well as keeping the transport running, according to Hugh Byrd, professor at the School of Architecture at the University of Lincoln in England.
In collaboration with the New Zealand Energy Center and the University of Auckland, Byrd and his colleagues found that detached suburban houses typical of an auto-age city are capable of producing ten times more solar power than is possible from skyscrapers or other commercial buildings. The calculations are based on a detailed cross section of Auckland, which has skyscrapers in its business center but has most of its homes spread out over the surrounding countryside in an urban sprawl.
Although every city is different, the pattern of building in Auckland is repeated in many cities around the globe. Byrd’s idea: If planners insist solar panels be fitted to properties and charging points be provided for electric cars, then cities judged to be damaging to the environment could be transformed.
The Latest Bing News on:
Solar Suburbia
- Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers Just Bought This $14 Million 90210 Compoundon December 2, 2021 at 11:44 am
More from Robb Report This Ferrari-Inspired 88-Foot Yacht Concept Has a Garage for Parking Your Prancing Horse Gucci and Massimo Bottura Teamed Up With a World-Renowned Baker to Make a Holiday ...
- ALP’s climate plan is weak but better than the Coalitionon December 2, 2021 at 11:36 am
The Labor Party has finally announced the climate change policy it will take to the next election and it is a very cautious compromise between electoral reality and saving the planet. Labor’s plan ...
- VERBUND AG: VERBUND acquires 150 MWp solar park from BayWa r.e. near Granada, Spainon November 28, 2021 at 11:49 pm
VERBUND AG has acquired the Illora solar project in Southern Spain from BayWa r.e. The Illora solar park is located in Pinos Puente close to Granada. The park is divided into three photovoltaic blocks ...
- How Bermuda can contribute to addressing the global warming crisison November 27, 2021 at 1:57 am
I cannot stress strongly enough that this is a last-chance, life-or-death situation, not only for human civilisation as we know it, but for the biosphere (all life) as a whole. We have let this creep ...
- Here’s why you need to support California net meteringon November 19, 2021 at 9:50 am
John Fitzgerald Weaver argues that we need net metering to fully recognize the value of solar power on our homes and businesses.
- The Extraordinarily Broad & Comprehensive Knowledge of Multigenerational Interdisciplinary Artist R.P. Haleon November 17, 2021 at 11:58 am
Meet Concord’s own polymath, Renaissance man, compulsive master of many things and life-long explorer of knowledge.
- Empty schools, crowded retirement homeson November 16, 2021 at 11:33 am
Behind the headlines about housing intensification in the bigger cities, all-time low birth rates and immigration create a very different infrastructure problem for many regions.
- Ford Has Strong Present and Future Catalystson November 11, 2021 at 4:31 am
In a column published in July 2020, I predicted that U.S. automobile sales would jump as many consumers avoided mass transit due to the novel coronavirus and moved from the cities to suburbia to ...
- Canberra Remembrance Day 2021: 80 years since Australia War memorial was openedon November 10, 2021 at 9:29 pm
In the black-and-white archive footage of that Remembrance Day, wide fields stretch away into what would become Canberra suburbia. More than 5000 people attended, including the prime minister John ...
- The State Of Scienceon August 17, 2020 at 6:25 am
A new podcast from WSHU Public Radio explores the intersection of Native American territory, climate change, and suburbia in one of the wealthiest parts of the East Coast. From the 1904 World’s Fair ...
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Solar Suburbia
The Latest Bing News on:
Solar power fitted to suburban houses
- What Does A Hacker Do With A Photocopier?on November 28, 2021 at 4:00 pm
Driving home from a day’s work in the engineering office, I am greeted with a sight familiar to any suburban dwelling ... that if I quickly cycled the power, the copier would successfully ...
- Community systems offer alternative paths for solar growthon November 28, 2021 at 9:17 am
Larger than home rooftop systems but smaller ... of 5 million households with community solar by 2025, saving consumers $1 billion. But power regulation happens at the state level, where interest ...
- ‘Feels like a treehouse’: Glebe Studioon November 25, 2021 at 7:47 pm
Cleverly navigating the constraints of a tightly hemmed Sydney site, this flexible laneway studio demonstrates the versatility and appeal of small-scale living.
- Power Your Home With A Water Batteryon November 21, 2021 at 4:00 pm
all while staying within the size of a typical suburban plot?” [Quint Builds] attempts something up that alley by using solar power to pump water up onto his roof and later releasing it for ...
- Ainslie Demonstration House comes coated in spinon November 19, 2021 at 5:24 am
"Canberra Matters" columnist PAUL COSTIGAN says the announcement of the latest "Demonstration House" projects is just the thin end of a planning wedge.
- Journalist returns home to Detroit area after Myanmar ordealon November 17, 2021 at 6:06 am
American journalist Danny Fenster, freed after nearly six months in jail in military-ruled Myanmar, said he feels “incredibly fortunate" to be back home in suburban Detroit after his uncertain ...
- Sean Casten, fresh from Glasgow, sizes up climate progress—and holdupson November 17, 2021 at 5:43 am
Casten went to Glasgow along with a delegation that included House Speaker ... coal-fueled power plants. “Illinois has a huge wind resource. We’ve got rapidly growing solar resources.
- LA Opens Its First Tiny Home Village to Ease Homeless Crisison November 13, 2021 at 4:00 pm
To get people out of the tents that line sidewalks near downtown Los Angeles and under freeway overpasses in suburban ... larger "micro homes" for homeless people that have in-house kitchens and are ...
- How passive solar ideas inspired a 1950s builder ahead of his timeon November 6, 2021 at 4:26 pm
From the outside, the suburban home in Perth's northern suburb of Yokine doesn't look much different from others on the street, but it was built in 1955 using passive solar design principles.
- Bees, sheep, crops: Solar developers tout multiple benefitson November 4, 2021 at 4:52 am
Instead of wheat and hay as before, the farm's 24 acres (about 10 hectares) host 3,276 panels, generating enough power for about 300 homes. Beneath them ... one of the Minnesota co-op's solar projects ...
