If you’ve gone as far as pricing a renewable energy system for your home, you may have suffered a bit of sticker shock: solar and wind systems can easily run $20,000 — $40,000 before any incentives. Now, imagine the prices on systems for large businesses and institutions. It’s no wonder that these big players have sought out alternatives to buying systems outright, and often entered into power purchase agreements (or PPAs) for energy produced by technology owned by others.

Harvard University went this route yesterday when it signed a contract with Boston-based wind energy developer First Wind.

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I really “dig” this beautiful house designed by architects at Single Speed Design and built with material salvaged and reutilized from Boston’s infamous and epic “Big Dig,” the most expensive highway project in US history. Originally estimated in 1985 to cost $2.5 billion, by 2008 the Big Dig’s bill ran upwards of $22 billion.

The project demonstrates an untapped potential for the public realm: with strategic front-end planning, much needed community programs including schools, libraries, and housing could be constructed whenever infrastructure is deconstructed, saving valuable resources, embodied energy, and taxpayer dollars.

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