You might not expect a Catholic high school founded by Benedictine Monks to be at the forefront of green technology, but in 2006 Portsmouth Abbey School built a 164-foot-tall wind turbine on its campus and in October of 2008 it became the site of this house designed by RISD architecture students to run entirely on solar energy.
The project was designed for the 2005 U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon in Washington DC and donated by RISD to Portsmouth Abbey in 2008 where it is now used as faculty housing. It features several types of solar panels, an energy recovery ventilation system, and energy efficient appliances.
In addition to the wind turbine, which provides nearly 40% of the boarding school’s electricity, Portsmouth Abbey recently built a girls dormitory with many green construction features and planted a kitchen garden to provide fresh vegetables to the dining hall. Is it us, or is heading back to school starting to seem pretty inspiring?
(Images: Portsmouth Abbey School)
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Comments (2)
i love the look of that kitchen/breakfast bar with the blue and red colors, but...yikes! the stovetop is right there. i'd burn myself every morning. :)
how neat is that? i love that they have a kitchen garden! my husband and i would love to some day have solar panels and or a wind turbine, but right now it seems pricey and confusing - we hope prices will go down soon and quality will go up. but i guess when you can't have a wind turbine you do what you can - we use Ash Tree Organics
bags and i charge our phones and ipod with a Solio.
Also, I loved the wood wall paneling!