https://reasonstobecheerful.world/all-electric-neighborhoods/
"Susan Manners and her partner were looking to move to Vermont to be closer to
their kids when they stumbled upon a chance to buy a townhouse in a new
development in the northwestern city of South Burlington. The view — a vista of
the Green Mountain range — was a huge selling point, Manners recalls. But they
were primarily drawn to the new-build home for how it is powered: solar panels
on the roof, a battery wall in the basement, and no natural gas hookup to be
found. And the same is true for all of their neighbors.
“The zero-carbon was a big driver,” Manners says. “We’re really concerned about
climate change.”
Manners is among the first residents of Hillside East at O’Brien Farm, a
planned neighborhood of 155 homes.
This new development is one of a growing number of housing projects, from
Florida to Colorado, that are forgoing the conventional fuel technology that
powers many American homes in favor of electric alternatives.
These new neighborhoods are not just minimizing emissions that contribute to
climate change, they’re also proving to be more resilient in the face of
climate extremes.
“You’re closer to the energy that you’re using,” says Evan Langfeldt, CEO of
O’Brien Brothers, the construction firm developing Manners’s neighborhood.
About 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from household
energy use, including heating, cooling, cooking and otherwise powering a home.
That makes housing a major target for addressing climate change, explains
Wangda Zuo, a Pennsylvania State University researcher who has studied net zero
neighborhoods, including one of the first in the U.S. on Florida’s Ana Maria
Island.
“If we are able to reduce building energy consumption, we can significantly
reduce the CO₂ emissions,” Zuo says."
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*** Xanni ***
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mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
