Unique Solar House Is Cool, But Has a Design Flaw

Here’s an interesting piece of a unique solar-architected house, a concept that is under development in Morocco.

From the piece linked above:

A sphere of solar panels passively cools the earthen home while generating maximum electricity.  

Moroccan architecture students have designed a unique solar hemp house capable of keeping off-grid desert dwellers cool in even the most extreme temperatures.

The all-natural hempcrete walls are surrounded by a sphere of solar panels, whose shape serves a dual purpose: shading the home, while maximizing the amount of electricity generated by capturing sunlight from all angles.

The 1000-square-foot earthen home was created as part of a competition sponsored by the U.S. and Moroccan energy departments.

The walls – a mixture of hemp, earth, volcanic ash and lime – are surrounded by a spherical hemp-wool shell, which house 24 flexible photovoltaic panels.

The hemp wool panels shade the home, while protecting the backside of the solar panels from temperatures that are often over 115 degrees in the shade. The curve of the panels allows them to capture sunlight from all angles, no matter what the season or time of day.

My only issue with this is that, unless you’re very close to the equator, it does no good to surround the house with solar PV.  Morocco is at about the same latitude as North Carolina, well north of the Tropic of Cancer, and so receives almost no sun on north-facing surfaces.