Green buildings

Building materials heavyweight Saint Gobain yesterday bought a stake in glass specialist Sage Electrochromics and plans to build a large factory to make automatically tinting glass.

France-based Saint Gobain paid $80 million for a 50 percent stake in Faribault, Minn.-based Sage Electrochromics, which makes energy-saving windows and skylights. The deal represents a significant boost for the green building technology.

With electrochromic glass, also called "smart glass," a low-voltage current causes windows to tint based on incoming light. Automatically adjusting the amount of sunlight that comes into buildings can significantly save on energy costs with a reduced lighting … Read more

GRATON, Calif.--As most people know, a major reason for the current housing meltdown was millions of people buying homes far bigger than they needed, let alone could afford. To Jay Shafer, the answer is tiny.

Shafer is the creator of Tumbleweed Tiny Houses, a company based in this, yes, tiny town about an hour north of San Francisco, that designs and sells very, very small homes.

How small? Tiny Houses' most petite model, the XS-House, is just 65 square feet. Yet, while you might expect to find little more than a rabbit warren inside, what you actually experience when … Read more

The Obama administration today launched of an energy efficiency program that will provide consumers with a home efficiency rating.

Vice President Joe Biden, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, and other officials announced that the initiative, called the Home Energy Score program, is now in pilot phase in ten communities. The DOE also announced a set of guidelines for home efficiency workers which provide specifications for high-quality work.

The program is designed to encourage homeowners to make energy-saving upgrades and to jump-start the industry for home energy retrofits, Biden said in a statement. It will also include financing for homeowners and software … Read more

It's not every solar project that gets its own ground-blessing ceremony.

But the Kalaeloa Solar One project will pay back native Hawaiians with both energy and rent through a partnership with Keahole Solar Power, Hawaiian start-up Sopogy, and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL).

Which is why there was a ground-blessing ceremony held for the project yesterday in Kalealoa, Oahu, west of Honolulu.

Sopogy is supplying its micro-concentrated solar panels (MicroCSP) for the 5-megawatt thermal solar plant that will tie-in to a new plan for the Kalealoa community near Honolulu.

Sopogy's panels are actually small solar troughs … Read more

One of the tallest buildings in the world, New York's iconic Empire State Building, hopes to once again lead the world by example.

It was announced today that the window phase of the iconic skyscraper's sweeping energy retrofit has been completed.

Does this mean the beloved Art Deco landmark will now be sporting all new windows or a different look? No, not even close.

Instead, 96 percent of the Empire State Building's 6,514 windows, which includes the original frames, and 26,000 panes of glass were reused.

A workshop set up by Serious Materials, a tech … Read more

A win today for those bothered by unsightly overhead wires snaking through otherwise pleasant views of cities, towns, and countrysides around the world.

Today, American Semiconductor announced it's filling its biggest order to date for its high-temperature superconductor (HTS) wire, which is used in underground direct-current superconductor cables.

Superconductor cable manufacturer LS Cable of Korea has ordered over 3 million meters of the HTS wire. The wire, which will be manufactured in Massachusetts, will be used in LS Cable direct-current superconductor cables to be laid across Korea in conjunction with a project with the Korean utility KEPCO, and also … Read more

The New York Jets are taking their green image to another level.

More than 3,000 solar panels from manufacturer Yingli Solar have been installed at the team's Atlantic Health Training Center in Florham Park, N.J., making them green in terms of energy as well as uniform.

The solar system will provide the team's 120,000-square-foot training, teaching, and medical facility with 750,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.

The New York Jets claim it's the largest photovoltaic system currently installed at any National Football League team headquarters.

"This project is the first of many … Read more

Adobe has hired Bloom Energy to install enough fuel cell servers to provide one-third of all electricity for Adobe's San Jose, Calif., headquarters, both companies announced today.

Specifically, Bloom will install 12 of its fuel cell servers on the fifth floor of Adobe's West Tower at the campus. Each Bloom box, as the company calls them, is roughly the size of a small van and contains thousands of ceramic fuel cells that can convert fuel and oxygen from the air into an electric current. For the Adobe installation, the units will use biogas for fuel.

One Bloom box … Read more

If you're supplying eco-materials for a commercial building, why not include some software to see how well it performs?

Serious Materials on Monday introduced a hosted software application that monitors and analyzes a commercial building's energy usage. By analyzing historical data and forecasting energy consumption, the software helps building managers find ways to use less energy and save money, according to Serious Materials.

The launch of the application, called SeriousEnergy Manager, is a step into a new area for Serious Materials, which makes energy-efficient windows and drywall with low embedded energy.

"With 5 million commercial buildings in … Read more