ABSTRACT
The form of communities is intimately tied to energy. Higher energy prices, along with the reality that the burning of fossil fuels produces air pollution and climate-changing carbon dioxide, have prompted communities to seek cleaner alternative energy sources. While issues of energy have become an urgent theme in modern community planning and design, their influence on urban forms can be observed in ancient cultures around the world. Building on the new paradigm of the distributed energy grid, the "net zero energy" movement looks at buildings and communities as potential net exporters of energy. With a combined strategy of highly efficient buildings and on-site renewable energy generation, a net zero energy building or community produces more energy over the course of a year than it consumes from fossil fuel sources. In order to create green communities, Americans will have to reduce their carbon and energy footprints.
