Venture Architecture Blog

Colorado Ranks 1st Among States for LEED!

Monday, January 23, 2012
A report recently released by the USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council) has ranked Colorado first among the fifty states for the amount of newly certified LEED-certified space per capita. Colorado leads the states with 2.74 square feet of LEED space per person, while second place Virginia has 2.69. Comments

More Good News from the Solar Industry!

Monday, December 19, 2011

More good news is coming from the solar industry! Even with the ongoing scrutiny and criticism of solar power,  technology continues to improve, financing is more accessible, and "the price of solar energy-generated electricity, calculated by a legitimate levelized cost of energy (LCOE) method, is now competitive in many regions with the price of electricity generated by conventional sources." What does that mean? Solar, in many regions, is just as cheap, or in some locations cheaper, than the electricity you get from the grid! A main reason for this big drop in pricing is due in large part to overly-conservative LCOE calculations that neglected the long life-span of PV panels, and the low to almost non-existent maintenance costs. Compared to the costs of maintaining a power plant, these low costs seem even more obvious. Finally, this study does NOT include any of the cost benefits associated with cleaner energy when compared to coal or natural gas. If those values were included, solar pricing could drop below grid parity. You can find the full article here, and the full study with data hereRead More...

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Denver's Emerging Solar Industry

Monday, October 17, 2011

Even with the collapse of Solyndra, the solar industry is still booming across the United States. While most sectors in the economy grew only .7% from August 2010 to August 2011, the solar industry grew a whopping 6.8% and added over 6,700 jobs. (Data: hereRead More...

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