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The home is connected to the power grid, but attempts to satisfy as much of it's own energy requirements through alternative, renewable methods as well as utilizing high efficiency construction techniques, resulting in net zero energy consumption for the year.

From the site:

"Zero energy homes get a black eye in my mind," says McKown, "Every time they do a demonstration site, they run out and they hire some brilliant architect and they go off and they build this one-off amazing house that sticks out of the neighborhood like a prairie chicken, and it costs a million dollars. Everybody looks at that and says, 'That's interesting. With enough money, you can do anything.' "We wanted to show that you can take any house out of a builder's product line," McKown continues, "and make it a zero energy house and it would look and feel and be just like a regular house, and it doesn't have to cost a million dollars. We could do it under $200,000."

The home made use of some interesting energy saving technology, such as:

• Tankless water heaters
• Ground source heat pumps
• South facing solar panels
• Low-e vinyl windows
• Fresh Air HVAC system

The home isn't currently one of the models that Ideal Homes sells. The company says that as people toured the home, they were more interested in the energy saving technology found in the home and using it to achieve super high efficiency, rather than actually having a home be zero energy, oddly.]]> http://www.househacker.com/permanent/First-Affordable-Zero-Energy-Home-in-the-US
The South African solar panels consist of a thin layer of a unique metal alloy that converts light into energy. The photo-responsive alloy can operate on virtually all flexible surfaces, which means it could in future find a host of other applications.

The new panels are 5 microns thick, allowing for a tremendous efficiency improvement over older solar panels that measure about 350 microns thick.

Science in Africa has a November 2004 article with some additional details:

Prof Vivian Alberts of the Department of Physics at the Rand Afrikaans University in South Africa and team have developed and patented a novel manufacturing technique that finally makes it possible to construct CIGS solar panels at a very low cost. The method is easily upscalable to industrial output levels, while remaining much cheaper to produce than conventional silicon solar panels.

Work done over the last two years indicates that panels can be produced in commercial volumes at a cost of about R 500 for a 50 Watt panel. This is much cheaper than existing solar panels available on the market. CIGS is a remarkably stable material and conversion efficiencies should be sustainable for 15-20 years in any given panel.

It will be interesting to see if this technology is able to gain traction and catch on, offering both humanitarian and eco-friendly benefits to the world. Also worth watching is the film-thin photovoltaic solar strips developed by Nobel laureate Alan Heeger's Konarka.]]> http://www.househacker.com/permanent/Possible-Solar-Technology-Breakthrough-out-of-South-Africa Breakthrough Awards, in which they showcase some of today's most promising and interesting scientific innovations (yeah, they shill, but still interesting). One of the more interesting entries is flexible photovoltaic plastic. The ultra-thin energy producers are being developed by the 2000 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, Alan Heeger. The more interesting part: the actual energy harnessing chemistry occurs within the solution of semiconducting polymers that can be painted onto surfaces such as roofs, tents, clothing and pets whatnot. It doesn't hurt that the stuff is easier to mass produce and cheaper than big grandpa solar panel. From the article: 'Solar energy is going to happen,' says Heeger. 'It will happen sooner and on a larger scale if we can provide a lower-cost technology.'

I hope he's right. ]]> http://www.househacker.com/permanent/Affordable-Film-Thin-Solar-Strips