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Boston calls for innovative energy programs

April 6, 2011 - Homebuyers calling up a moving company and putting a priority on environmentally-sustainable homes may want to consider relocating to Boston.

The city's mayor announced the start of a competition that urges apartment developers to find a way to build a home that produces "net-positive energy," reports the Boston Herald. The concept involves a home that produces so much energy it can actually help power other nearby buildings. The city owns three vacant lots in the neighborhoods of Roxbury and Jamaica Plain, and the development company with the best proposal would be able to build its energy-efficient apartment complexes on each site.

Experts said the city's competition is taking energy efficiency to a new level, helping families considering moving plans pick from a group of homes that can produce more energy than they need. The city council also recently adopted a building code that requires 20 percent of buildings exceed state required levels of energy efficiency, making Boston the first city in the country with such a policy, said the report.

"Net-positive energy" homes may seem like something out of science fiction, but they do exist. Reports said a home built in Montague, Massachusetts, as part of a separate contest produced two and a half times the energy it consumed.
 

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