Well, by combining an “airtight envelope” with solar arrays, a passive house certified nursing home in Spain can actually generate more energy than it uses.

The new nursing home extension is topped with an 18 kW photovoltaic array along with 20 solar thermal panels and rooftop seating. When combined with the building’s airtight envelope, which was engineered to follow passive solar strategies, the renewable energy systems are capable of producing surplus energy, which is diverted to the old building. The Passivhaus-certified extension also includes triple glazed openings, radiant floors, rainwater harvesting and mechanical ventilation equipped with heat recovery. 

Inhabitat

So the technology exists to build like this, so why don’t we do it everywhere? Well, part of it is ignorance and resistance to adapting ideas from elsewhere to one’s own locale. A lot of it is legitimate concerns about cost. But new materials and skills can be expensive because they are in short supply locally. So, bring in a technology like this, set up local factories and training programs to build capacity, encourage entrepreneurs, provide successful examples and incentives and possibly regulations, and you can bring cost down. When the people doing it forget the old way of doing things, assume the new way is the way it has always been and the only way it can be, and are resistant to the next new idea that comes along, you have made progress.