Passive solar energy

Advocates of passive solar design have been 
around for many decades and the prize-winning 
schemes in a European competition for passive

solar housing mounted in 1980 show that the 
technology has not advanced significantly since 
that time. However, the intensification of the global 
warming debate has led to increasing pressure to 
design buildings which make maximum use of free 
solar gains for heating, cooling and lighting. 
This will be considered in detail in later chapters.
Because it displaces the use of fossil fuel it is 
estimated that passive solar design could lead 
to a reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) amounting 
to 3.5 million tonnes per year in the UK alone 
by the year 2025 (DOE Energy Paper 60).