
Entire Neighborhood Has Shared Solar Heating - sah
http://greenbuildingelements.com/2008/06/27/community-solar-power/
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jws
I find this technology interesting because it won't work well for an
individual, you must cooperate to make it work. The heat is stored using
boreholes to heat a volume of the earth underground. The surface area/volume
ratio is against a single user, but becomes more favorable as the number of
participants increases.

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jrockway
This is a good idea. In the past, we got by with just giving everyone
electricity and having them turn that into whatever they needed, but since
it's inefficient to convert sunlight -> electricity, it's now more economical
[1] to just pipe hot water to people's homes.

Hopefully they system can be enhanced with the ability to carry cooling water
to the houses also.

[1] Actually, this probably costs a lot more than electricity right now, but
it's the most economical way to get solar heat. Some day there won't be cheap
energy, but there will always be sunlight.

