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Solar Hemp House

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Super Efficient Solar Hemp House Design Could Help Moroccans Live
Comfortably Off Grid
NOV. 11, 2020

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

Moroccan architecture students have designed a unique

solar hemp(KENEVİR) 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(KÜRE) of solar panels, whose shape serves a dual
purpose: shading the home, while maximizing the
amount of electricity generated by capturing
(YAKALAMAK) sunlight from all angles.(AÇILAR)

The 1000-square-foot earthen home was created as part

of a competition(REKABET) sponsored by the U.S. and
Moroccan energy departments called the Solar
Decathalon.

The challenge was to create a hemp composite using

vegetable-based bio-resins, avoiding technical or
synthetic components, and to power the home using
nothing but solar energy.

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(GÖLGE) The curve of the panels(PANELLERİN
EGRİSİ) allows them to capture sunlight from all angles,
no matter what the

season or time of day.

“The cylindrical envelope(SARMAK ZARF) of the

circular building … gives interior comfort through
optimal damping and thermal phase shift, and
osmosis of the components in the hempcrete
formulation,” Monika Brümmer, a German
architect and natural builder who led the
project, told Hemp Today.

“This ‘space-ship’ is advanced in time and reflects a turn not only in North Africa but in hemp
construction, which doesn’t have comparable prototypes anywhere in the world.”

The home was built for $120,000, around half the cost of the other solar homes in the contest.

715156283.docx Page 1 of 2
Feeding Reading

Solar Hemp House

Reading 1
https://returntonow.net/2020/11/11/super-efficient-solar-hemp-house-design-could-help-moroccans-live-
comfortably-off-grid/

715156283.docx Page 2 of 2