ABSTRACT
Targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) include increasing the number of cities and human settlements adopting and implementing plans toward resource efficiency, mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, and sustainable human settlement planning and management. It is well known that one of the pathways toward resource efficiency is energy efficiency, which is also represented by the transition toward a low-carbon economy. This transition involves, among other strategies, the spread of renewable energy sources in our cities, which is also one of the aims of SDG 7. This chapter aims at explaining the current architectural integration of solar plants at the urban scale (neighborhoods, small towns, urban infrastructures, and large urban solar arrays). The research involved the study of examples in the Pacific Rim region identified through a set of criteria on urban morphology and building design. Countries like Japan, China, and the USA have activated important programs and strategies toward the development of large community solar power generation. These models provide examples for the study of potential large-scale applications at other latitudes of the Pacific Rim.
