An Energy Positive House in Australia

Archibox, an Australian firm that specializes in eco-friendly modular homes, just installed this model in downtown Melbourne. The one-bedroom house costs about $220,000 (plus land) and is designed to produce more electricity than it uses. This has two components: energy production, via solar panels, and energy efficiency, using a whole range of tricks. Inhabit:

Fronted by a floor-to-ceiling double-glazed facade, the self-sufficient Carbon Positive House was designed to maximize solar gain and passive design strategies. Instead of relying on mechanical heating and cooling, the naturally ventilated home uses in-ground tubes to pull in cool air from the south side. The building is topped by a green roof for added insulation as well as a set of sliding vertical garden walls that shade and cool the building in the summer.

Energy use and carbon production are technical problems. We are actually very good these days at solving technical problems, so there is no reason why we could not drastically reduce our use of fossil fuels within a few decades.