Passive Solar is NOT Solar Power
Passive solar is about designing the building to minimize how much power it requires to provide a comfortable environment for humans living or working in the building. It is wholly unrelated to electric generation via solar panels.
It is anti-fragile design that becomes more resilient over time in the face of stressors teaching occupants what works and what doesn't.
It is closely associated with vernacular architecture which historically provided regional cultural flavor to building styles. Vernacular architecture is emergent architecture developed by the common person from local building materials and designed to perform well in the face of local conditions, including but not limited to environmental conditions (weather, climate and related issues such as risk of flooding).
The global economy has lost a lot of wisdom by spreading European architecture across the world as if we imagine European architecture is simply superior -- AKA best for all places. It's not and this is making heat waves worse in India.
The US has a backlog of infrastructure maintenance issues it is failing to keep up with while the world imagines we need to export First World solutions to Third World countries.
Reality: This practice is akin to winning the lottery which gives ordinary people rich people problems without giving them rich people coping skills and is known to destroy more lives than it improves.
Even if you outright GIFT a building to a poor country, it's often not suitable to their needs and they now have First World problems and no First World coping skills.
Poverty solutions are frequently cheap upfront but bleed people financially over time. The lifetime cost of bad solutions actively promotes poverty.
Middle class solutions typically have a higher upfront cost but lower carrying costs and lower lifetime cost than poverty solutions.
Passive solar is like that: It takes more time, effort, information, etc. upfront to develop a site specific custom design but maintainance costs are lower, both in terms of money and in terms of time and effort.
Passive solar is a DESIGN ethos, NOT a type of power generation. It reduces the need for electric generation while typically providing a higher quality of life and comfort level for occupants.
