POWER TEACHING WITH SOLAR SCHOOL PROGRAMS 
A growing number of US schools not only teach about solar energy in the classroom but are also lighting, heating, and cooling with it. Public Service Company of Colorado and Altair Energy of Golden, Colorado have partnered to install over 30 photovoltaic systems in schools by the summer of 1999. The governor's Office of Energy Conservation helped make these 2 kW grid-tied installations possible through its Colorado Solar Schools Program. To help students learn about renewable energy, each participating school gets a computer that monitors system performance in real time. Not all solar school  programs are in the sunbelt. Six schools in Wisconsin have solar electric systems on their rooftops thanks to the SolarWise for Schools program conducted by Wisconsin Public Service Corporation. SolarWise also provides a renewable energy curriculum compiled by a high school science teacher and now  used by 1,300 students. In and around Ohio, the Foundation for Environmental Education is working toward its goal of installing 100 to 200 photovoltaic systems in schools. Bluffsview School in Worthington got the first system, installed and tied to the grid last year. The web site of American Electric Power, a program sponsor, will let students compare how much power the school's system is generating with how much [the school] is consuming. Every  grade level will have curricula connections to the system in math and science. Among the resources at <http://www.solarschools.org> is Schools  Going Solar, a publication that highlights projects in the US. - Solar Today, May-Jun 99, p 34, by Vicki Mastaitis.

HOMEBUSH BAY: SYDNEY 2000'S GREEN SHOWPLACE 
More than four years of construction have transformed Homebush Bay, the 1,900-acre site of 14 of the 28 Sydney 2000 Olympic venues, from an industrial area into a green Olympics showplace. "The Olympic Coordination Authority is using the Olympic games to help promote the growing philosophy that we must look after our environment better than we have in the past," says the OCA's Jo Moss. Both the 15,000-person Olympic Village and the 20,000-seat Sydney SuperDome use solar power. The SuperDome's grid-tied 70-kilowatt system is billed as Australia's largest rooftop system. At Stadium Australia, the 100,000-seat Olympic stadium, four 750,000-liter holding tanks collect water for irrigating the field from the stadium roof. A  remediation program at Homebush Bay, once a disposal site for domestic and  industrial waste, moved 9 million cubic meters of waste to specially designed areas now part of a 1,100-acre park for environmental education, bird  watching, and nature research. - Urban Land, May 99, p 29, by Bradley C. Grogan. [More: <http://www.oca.nsw.gov.au/Homebushbay.htm>]

SOLENIUM FLOORING DESIGNED FOR DISASSEMBLY 
Carpet maker Interface has introduced Solenium, a new floor covering made of  recycled-content components that come apart for recycling. Calling it resilient textile flooring, Interface designed Solenium to bridge the gap between carpet and resilient flooring. The sandwich of materials that make up Solenium starts with a flat weave of a shiny yarn made of poly trimethylene terephthalate, or PTT, a polymer with excellent inherent stain resistance. Joining the woven face and its urethane cushion backing is an unlockable adhesive layer made from fiberglass reinforced carbite, a byproduct of petroleum refining. Applying heat at 375 degrees F for seven minutes unzips the face and backing for separate recycling. The carbite layer also serves as a moisture barrier and includes an antimicrobial agent. A polypropylene scrim secondary backing peels off the bottom manually for recycling. Made not entirely of recycled materials, Solenium's urethane backing currently  requires some virgin resin, and its face fibers are limited to 22 percent  recycled content since, when remelted, PTT turns black. Instead of the energy intensive process of depolymerizing used PTT and reforming it into entirely new fibers of any color, Interface opted to build the recycled black fibers into each of Solenium's three designs, each with six to eight color schemes. Interface sees schools and hospitals as its primary markets for Solenium because both benefit from carpet's comfort and acoustics but struggle with its maintenance and cleanliness. Solenium comes in one-square-meter tiles and costs about $27 a yard installed. More: <http://www.solenium.com>. - Environmental Building News, May 99, p 8. [Full EBN text:  <http://www.ebuild.com/Archives/Product_Reviews/solenium.html>]

FINE FURNITURE FROM SHIPPING PALLETS 
Turning weather-beaten shipping pallets into fine furniture is the business of Safe Solutions of Durango, Colorado. The now defunct company Big City Forest, which once made furniture and flooring from pallets, inspired craftsman Stuart Dimson to start his own company and offer a finer line of furniture. Safe Solutions recently supplied 345 night tables for the green  renovation of the Sheraton Rittenhouse Square Hotel in Philadelphia. In a  recent eight-month period, the company recycled 550 pallets into its line of coffee tables, end tables, night tables, desks, dressers, and custom pieces  like credenzas. Fifteen local businesses supply the pallets, about a third  oak and the rest maple, cherry, ash, poplar, beech, and tropical hardwoods.  In Durango's small industrial economy, only one of Safe Solutions' suppliers  reuses its pallets. But nationally, 96 percent of pallet users report reusing  the pallets they receive, says the National Wooden Pallet and Container Association. When no longer useful as pallets, 71 percent are recycled. Of  the 1.9 billion pallets in use each year in the US, ten percent are sent to  landfills. Most of Safe Solutions' sales are wholesale, but the night tables, for example, retail for $175 to $350; the dressers around $600. - In  Business, Mar-Apr 99, p 23, by Molly Farrell. [Contact Safe Solutions: <safesol@frontier.net>]

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO EARTH-SHELTERED HOMES?
Interest in earth-sheltered houses has waned in the US since their heyday in the 1970s and early 80s when an energy crisis, environmental concerns, and a cultural exploration of alternative lifestyles spurred some homebuilders to seek out more energy efficient, earth-friendly alternatives to the suburban tract home. Most people don't want the Hobbit-like look of earth-sheltered homes nor the stigma of living underground, says Minneapolis architect Gar Hargens of Close Associates. The firm has designed earth-sheltered houses since the 1930s, but its most visible and high-profile project is the row of townhouses Hargens designed in 1978 along a Minneapolis freeway. The energy advantage of earth-sheltered homes, Hargens explains, is that the earth, a constant 50 degrees F five feet underground, insulates against temperature extremes while buffering the wind. "Earth-sheltered housing wasn't a bad idea," says University of Minnesota researcher John Carmody. "It was part of a creative period of thinking how houses are designed and operated. It just wasn't an idea broadly adopted." Seeing them as difficult to sell, Carmody explains, mortgage and real estate people resisted the unconventional houses, and the business of constructing them never became viable. When energy prices flattened out, people stopped worrying about energy consumption. Now the housing market has embraced technological innovations like high-efficiency furnaces, low-e windows, and better insulation that turn conventional houses into more energy-efficient ones. - Architecture Minnesota, May-Jun 99, p 48, by Camille LeFevre. [Abridged AM text (feature): <http://www.aia-mn.org/magMayJun99>] [Contact Close Associates: <missythom@aol.com>]

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ABOUT THE PUBLISHER Architectural researcher and environmental consultant Chris Hammer of Sustainable Design Resources publishes GreenClips in San Francisco. Ms. Hammer helps planners, developers, building owners, designers, builders, and facility managers practice sustainable planning, development, building design, construction, and operation. GreenClips is written by Chris Hammer and James Richert.

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