Before plopping panels on your roof, consider other ways to conserve electricity, like switching to CFL or LED lightbulbs and replacing inefficient electrical appliances like old refrigerators. “Conservation is the leanest means to reducing electrical use and fossil-fuel consumption,” Moore says. “PV panels require a lot of energy to produce, ship, install, and dispose of.”

Architects David Arkin and Anni Tilt found a balance between passive design strategies—plenty of natural light, maximized winter sun, shaded harsh summer rays, and cross-ventilated breezes—and the latest in green technologies in this Santa Cruz strawbale house. Photo by Gabriela Hasbun. See the house come together in a "bale-raising" gathering here.

To power the building, Blee and Halligan hooked up two solar panels—though not without difficulty. "The roof faces the wrong way—north—so we couldn't mount the panels on it," Blee says. Instead, they affixed the two 1.5-by-1.5-foot solar arrays to a nearby existing wall and ran cables back to the structure. To increase efficiency by not having to convert the 12-volt power coming from the panels to higher, more appliance-friendly wattage, the architects installed 12-volt light fixtures throughout. "You can't plug a laptop into the wall, but it's a more simple and robust system: just two panels wired into the battery," Blee says.

Entirely off the grid, the house is powered by four photovoltaic panels that supply electricity to lights, small appliances, and water pumps.

UNStudio's proposal for the Hanwha headquarters in Seoul features a responsive facade that will be used to control the indoor climate during the day, and come alive as a dynamic light show during the night.

An array of solar thermal tubes crowns the garage, and photovoltaic panels extend like wings over the third-floor deck. “If we were going to make a big architectural move, we had to have reasons,” Moore explains, referring to the conspicuous placement of the panels.

Since the house is miles away from the electrical grid, it needed to be self sustaining. Solar panels provide power and Brun and Esparza engineered the structure to be green from the get go. "The building is high-performance and energy-efficient because of its insulation," Brun says. "There are operable windows in every single room in the house, which actually reduces electricity use since it cuts down the need for artificial lighting. Once we reduced the electricity need in the house, we then went through the active strategies which are solar panels and the heat exchange system."

Named after its rooftop photovoltaic panels, the Solar Studio is the first completed build in NODE’s customizable Trillium Series.

Photovoltaic panels and a green roof will cap the project. They will also work to integrate the house into the natural setting.

The Solar Revolution installed 3.6-kilowatt photovoltaic solar panels on top of the carport, which sports a board-formed concrete exterior and a cedar-slat-and-plywood interior.

Photovoltaics panels were installed at the pool house.

Photovoltaic panels top the roof of the building.

Each home includes a solar photovoltaic panel array adequate to offset the home’s annual energy use.

A photovoltaic panel is installed above the outdoor deck.

Flat sections of the roof are topped with photovoltaic panels.

The houses are equipped with rainwater capture and reuse mechanisms, and photovoltaic panels for solar energy.

Photovoltaic panels have been installed on the sloped, south-facing volume.

Photovoltaic modules mounted on the roof will cover all of the building's electricity needs.

The stainless steel canopy fascia hides the rooftop photovoltaic solar panels.

The home's solar canopy features prefabricated aluminum shading elements and five three-kilowatt photovoltaic arrays.

Suttles and Shah readied the house for photovoltaic panels, a solar waterheating system for the pool, and a rainwater collection setup.

Loader Monteith tends to have a "fabric-first" approach to sustainability. Any work happening on the roof or walls received a thick coat of insulation, and all glass is triple-glazed. "It’s like the house has a warm hat and jacket and a dry pair of Welly boots," says Loader. "Once you’ve done a lot of the hard work, you can make the heating system as small as possible." Photovoltaic solar panels on the roof collect energy throughout the day.

The flat roof of the Nakhshabs’ energy-efficient home is topped with photo-voltaic panels. It is the first single-family LEED Gold–certified residence in San Diego.

The solar photovoltaic rooftop panels draw 12 kilowatts of electricity. The prefabricated cross-laminated timber structure is insulated by 17-inch walls, and the deck outside the master bedroom is bordered with sedum.

A photovoltaic roof array supplies 92% of the home’s electricity usage, with future plans to increase those capabilities with battery storage. There are also systems for rainwater harvesting and greywater recycling.

Edwards Anker’s 3D-printed Latitude Lights dot the dining room table. They can be optimized so that the tilt of the photovoltaic panel changes according to latitude.

Edwards Anker designed the indoor/outdoor Knotties chairs in waterproof rattan, as well as the solar chandelier, which uses photovoltaic modules to power LED bulbs and illuminates Capiz shells.

Set back from the road at an angle to minimize views from the road and to maximize connection with nature, the home is a quiet and private sanctuary. The photovoltaic panels on the garage can feed excess solar energy back to the grid.

A "raked roof" promotes daylighting, while a 6Kw photovoltaic solar array with 4.8Kw battery storage generates clean energy. The front porch encourages socializing with the neighbors.

"The photovoltaic car port provides just enough electricity to run the geothermal pumps and compressor, as well as operate the buildings LED night lighting and all-electric kitchen," Moore describes.

This Sydney home was designed to be an emblem for climate-conscious design. Aspiring to create a self-sustaining mini ecosystem, the architect-owner embraced clean and renewable energy with a facade of photovoltaic panels, a garden rooftop, and myriad green details.

Other active sustainable features included grey water harvesting, whereby the bathing and laundry water are stored and repurposed to flush toilets and irrigate the landscape, as well as photovoltaic panels that produce electricity and solar thermal plans that preheat the domestic and pool water.

The retreat embodies the studio’s commitment to environmentally-focused architecture, with triple-glazed windows, abundant insulation, natural ventilation, an air source heat pump for off-grid heating, photovoltaic panels, and a timber-frame structure with blown paper insulation in the roof.

The low-mass structure enables the house to warm up quickly in winter, and the geometric, concrete mass that wraps around a log burner helps moderate internal temperatures. Low-0energy fittings and north-facing photovoltaic cells enhance energy efficiency.

Laminam is a pioneer in producing large, thin, porcelain, photovoltaic tiles. Silicone solar cells are applied over the ceramic panels, and the resulting slabs are only 8mm thick.

Tomecek Studio’s Container House in Nederland, Colorado, is a 1,500-square-foot residence anchored into a rock outcropping. The dwelling—which comprises two insulated shipping containers clad in fireproof plank siding—is powered by photovoltaic rooftop panels and takes advantage of passive solar strategies to keep energy demands to a minimum.