Intrinsic Energy Efficiency of Dome Buildings

The Monolithic Dome Institute’s web site is loaded with many well-thought and useful articles. The web-site is constantly updated. (There are references to the Monolithic Dome Institute (MDI) in previous archives of this blog.) In one of David B. South’s articles, he referred to the governmental and popular interest in alternative and renewable energy systems, such as: solar cells, wind systems, geothermal heat exchange systems, and fuel cells. The government agencies give tax incentives and credits to businesses, cities and non-profit companies. Also, the government offers incentives to homeowners. One can be eligible to receive special rates or mortgage provisions for installing an alternative energy system.

Although the idea of an incentive or deduction sounds lucrative, when consulting with a dome specialist, I was told that, for a dome building, it would not be worthwhile to install an energy saving device. One reason because the dome building saves so much energy from the start, that an additional system will pay for itself only after numerous years of saving energy. A lecturing geothermal heat exchange engineer pointed out that the it is very expensive to purchase and install an alternative energy system unless one is installing it into a new building. Alternative energy systems are very costly.

Mr. South noted that people at renewable energy meetings tend to come up with similar ideas. The conclusion is that at this point in time, it costs more to generate energy, with the devices on the market, than it would to simply buy the energy. Thus, by building more efficiently, we save simply from the building style without having to invest in another machine or system.

However, if we really want a geothermal or solar system, we can get one by obtaining a grant (as suggested by Ward Hoffman, the U.S. Department of Energy, Senior Financial Specialist). If we are living in a state that allows us to sell back our excess energy to the “grid,” our alternative energy system will be useful, especially if we are using an energy efficient dome structure.

Reference:
Monolithic Dome Institute Article on Alternative Energy:

http://www.monolithic.com/pres/alt-energy/index.html/