Part 1: A Glimpse of the Energy Future (from renewableaccess.com)

[jpak]

http://www.renewableaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=49647

The cul-de-sac of 40 small houses is everything you might expect in American suburbia. Minivans sit parked in perfectly proportioned driveways. Clumps of kids ride bikes around the neighborhood. Dogs bark behind backyard fences. A nearby four-lane drones in the background. What is not so obvious is that this tiny community offers a peephole to the future -- a future in which homes will generate and conserve as much energy as they require.

Most of the time, even resident Kim Charles does not notice the solar panels on her roof, the whisper of her SEER 17 heat pump water heater, the airtight, moisture-managed construction of structural insulated panels, the integrated design that allows most of the home's plumbing to reside within one wall, saving precious energy.

What Charles does notice is a power bill that amounts to less than a daily cup of coffee. Thanks to a 15 cent-per-kilowatt-hour credit paid by the Tennessee Valley Authority for electricity piped back to the power grid, her meter literally runs backwards on sunny days. In 2006, she paid an average of 41 cents per day for electricity.

Charles's home is among five in this Habitat for Humanity community located in Lenoir City, Tenn., and outfitted with the latest in energy-saving technologies as part of a research project designed and implemented by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and co-funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

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[hogwyld]

1. Good for them, but does this take into effect

The amount that these families have to commute to get to their jobs?

[ramapo]

2. Plug-in minivans

That would almost complete the picture, plus schools and critical services like basic shopping within a reasonable walk.