My passion is to save energy. This affects my way of living and also, perhaps subconsciously, my choices for hobbies. I have chosen sailing instead of motor boating and cross country skiing instead of downhill skiing. I try to cut down my energy usage as much as possible at home but my energy bill always makes a reasonable dent in my finance. This might change in the future as Europe is moving toward near zero energy houses (NZEH) after 2020.

A near zero energy house consumes very little energy and most of the energy is produced locally from renewable energy. Simplified, we talk about passive houses that produce solar energy.

Germany is one of the leading countries in solar business and many house roofs are covered with solar panels. Subventions and feed in tariffs are available. If we look at Finland, the situation is very different and very few houses have solar panels. This is somewhat alarming since solar power is one of the key elements of NZEH.

I have heard explanations why inhabitants are not encouraged to feed electricity into a grid; produced electricity has poor quality, the grid management is difficult etc. But, if Germans can handle these little inconveniences, why couldn't we?

I want to believe that conventional solar power is not our only hope to build a NZEH. Nanotechnology is rising and new hybrid solar power systems have been developed. These technologies increase efficiency of the photovoltaic panels and hopefully make them more cost efficient. Even thermoelectric might become more used. The energy source in a NZEH might also be something else that we have never thought of. If you figure it out, PLEASE let me know! I was recently nominated a Solved Expert and can be contacted on solved.fi.

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Image: Ensto
Relevant sites: Ensto.com