With various degrees of urgency, E.U. countries are moving toward requiring new homes to only use clean energy and have zero net carbon emissions, despite some real estate developers' complaints that such homes cost more to build and will be harder to sell.
COPENHAGEN -- When Kay Helt moved into his superefficient home on the outskirts of Copenhagen two years ago, he felt as if he had just stepped into the lifestyle of the future. His high-tech house uses five times less energy for heating than his old one, and it recycles rainwater for the toilets and shower.
Yet in only a few years, Helt's house will already be obsolete.
With various degrees of urgency, E.U. countries are moving toward requiring new homes to only use clean energy and have zero net carbon emissions, despite some real estate developers' complaints that such homes cost more to build and will be harder to sell.
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The United Kingdom mandates all new homes be zero-carbon by 2016. France and Germany are debating stronger building requirements of their own. And Denmark will require all new houses to meet the "passive house" standard by 2020, meaning using 85 percent less energy and producing 95 percent less carbon dioxide than regular houses.
