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Solar architecture is the integration of passive solar, active solar or solar panel technology with modern building techniques. The use of flexible thin-film photovoltaic modules provides fluid integration with steel roofing profiles, enhancing the building's design. Orienting a building to the sun, selecting materials with favorable thermal mass or light dispersing properties, and designing spaces that naturally circulate air also constitute solar architecture. Initial development of solar architecture has been limited by the rigidity and weight of standard solar power panels. The continued development of photovoltaic (PV) thin film solar has provided a lightweight yet robust vehicle to harness solar energy to reduce a building's impact on the environment. ==History== The idea of passive solar building design first appeared in Greece around the fifth century BC. Up until that time, the Greek's main source of fuel was charcoal, but due to a major shortage of wood to burn they were forced to find a new way of heating their dwellings.〔Perlin, J. (Passive Solar History ) (2005, January 1) ''California Solar Center''. Retrieved March 30, 2015.〕 With necessity as their motivation, the Greeks revolutionized the design of their cities. They began using building materials that absorbed solar energy, mostly stone, and also started orienting the buildings so that they faced south. These revolutions, coupled with an overhang that kept out the hot summer sun, created structures which required very little heating and cooling. Socrates wrote, "In houses that look toward the south, the sun penetrates the portico in winter, while in summer the path of the sun is right over our heads and above the roof so that there is shade."〔(Passive Solar Design – A History ) (2010, February 1) ''GreenBuilding.com'' Retrieved March 25, 2015.〕 From this point on, most civilizations have oriented their structures to provide shade in the summer and heating in the winter. The Romans improved on the Greek's design by covering the southern facing windows with different types of transparent materials.〔 Another simpler example of early solar architecture is the cave dwellings in the South-Western regions of North America. Much like the Greek and Roman buildings, the cliffs in which the indigenous people of this region built their homes were oriented towards the south with an overhang to shade them from the midday sun during the summer months and capture as much of the solar energy during the winter as possible.〔(Seven ancient wonders of Greek design and technology ) ''Ecoist''. Retrieved April 19, 2015.〕 Active solar architecture involves the moving of heat and/or coolness between a temporary heat storage medium and a building, typically in response to a thermostat's call for heat or coolness within the building. While this principle sounds useful in theory, significant engineering problems have thwarted almost all active solar architecture in practice. The most common form of active solar architecture, rock bed storage with air as a heat transfer medium, usually grew toxic mold in the rock bed which was blown into houses, along with dust and radon in some cases. A more complex and modern incarnation of solar architecture was introduced in 1954 with the invention of the photovoltaic cell by Bell Labs. Early cells were extremely inefficient and therefore not widely used, but throughout the years government and private research has improved the efficiency to a point where it is now a viable source of energy. Universities were some of the first buildings to embrace the idea of solar energy. In 1973, the University of Delaware built Solar One, which was one of the world’s first solar powered houses. As photovoltaic technologies keep advancing, solar architecture becomes easier to accomplish. In 1998 Subhendu Guha developed photovoltaic shingles and recently a company called Oxford Photovoltaics has developed perovskite solar cells that are thin enough to incorporate into windows.〔(The History of Solar ) (2012, March 8) U.S. Department of Energy. Retrieved March 26, 2015.〕 Although the windows are not scaled to a size that can be taken advantage of on a commercial level yet, the company believes that the outlook is very promising. In the company’s mission statement they state, "Moreover, through the deployment of solar cells in areas where solar has traditionally struggled, for example the glass façades of high-rise commercial or residential buildings. In both cases, allowing solar energy to contribute a much higher proportion of electricity than is possible today, and helping to position PV as a significant factor in the global energy market."〔(Our Vision ) (2015, January 1) ''Oxford PV''. Retrieved March 29, 2015.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Solar architecture」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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