Construction Observations from the Iberian Penninsula

This winter break I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Spain and Portugal with the School of Building Construction at Virginia Tech to study architecture, urban planning, renewable energy, and culture. As the observations made abroad could fill a hundred blog entries, I am going to dedicate this entry to a few specific construction practices observed while traveling the Iberian Penninsula. The topics covered in this section include historic preservation, adaptive reuse and renewable energy systems. These topics represent the most commonly observed differences in construction practice between Spain/Portugal and America; this entry hopefully will shed some light on these differences for those not able to make the trek themselves.

Here Comes the Sun!

In the world of green building, nothing is as sexy as a solar panel. The holy grail of energy gurus and green builders alike, solar panels offer a visual commitment to sustainability as well as a practical way to produce free energy from the world's most abundant resource; sunlight. Solar energy is also the world's fastest growing source of power, with production seeing a six-fold increase from 2000-2005 (Sawin, 28). In fact, the Solar Energy Industries Association estimates solar energy potential at 55% of U.S total energy demand! Falling prices for PV systems due to increased production coupled with rising fossil fuel prices and the threat of government intervention in energy markets could spark exponential growth in this sector of the renewable energy market. It is with these facts in mind that a small business in Roanoke, Virginia embarked on the path of energy liberation.