Solar energy is harnessed in various ways not necessarily with PhDs in attendance.  Traditional systems have been evolved independently in many parts of the world.  Here is news about a system in the highest parts of the Himalaya.
 

Solar Energy: Tradition and Science

It is almost always assumed that passive solar technologies are an innovation of modern science. In  fact such technologies were used by the Romans in Europe and by the Moghuls in Asia, long before the age of ‘modern science.’  We don’t have to look for empire builders either.  Villagers in the Himalayas, for example, in Jumla in West Nepal and  Solo Khumbhu, in the east, have been building houses to catch the sun from the south for over a millennium.

Latter day solar-heating technologies produce quite sophisticated equipment which applies a knowledge that is already a part of folklore.  Houses are built facing the southeast and, in Jumla, cattle are kept on the ground floor and the living quarters approached by an outside stair like ancient bastle houses on the Scots/English border.  The colours of houses in Jumla are used to absorb the sun, and roofs are of mud and plaster.  Sherpa houses in Solo Khumbu are built of stone but windows are kept on the south and the cooking is done in the room next to the living quarters.

Passive solar interventions in the Nepal-Himalayas have mostly consisted of retrofitting measures, using bamboo and plaster to provide false walls and ceilings that can act as heat traps.  Throughout air gaps of 50mm are maintained  for insulation.  This is retrofitting.  One does see, however, particularly in Sherpa areas, that when new domiciles are built, both traditional and modern methods are combined.  Passive solar technologies are used to keep people warm and to heat water and micro-hydro technology is used to deliver water to the house.  In some ways, the Himalayan regions are more ‘modern’ and environmentally conscious than the Kathmandu Valley—where one can see the excessive use of precious grid power by vulgar neon advertisements polluting the Himalayan skyline.

A Pennington
 

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