Steven J. Strong

President of Solar Design Associates,Inc.

Steven J. Strong is President of Solar Design Associates, Inc., a group of Architects and Engineers dedicated to the design of environmentally responsive buildings, and the engineering and integration of renewable energy systems which incorporate the latest in innovative technology.

He founded the firm in 1974 after serving as an energy-systems engineering consultant on the Alaskan pipeline where he became convinced there were easier, less-costly, more environmentally desirable ways to provide comfort and convenience to the consumer than "going to the ends of the earth to extract the last drop of fossil fuel".

Drawing on his background in architecture and engineering, he has earned the firm an international reputation for the pioneering integration of renewable energy systems - especially solar electricity - with environmentally responsive building design.

Over the last 25 years, he has designed dozens of homes and buildings powered by solar electricity. In 1984, working with New England Electric, he completed the world’s first PV-powered neighborhood in central Massachusetts. In 1996, he worked with Olympic village architects to power the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta with solar electricity using the world’s largest roof-top PV power system.

He represented the US on the International Energy Agency’s expert working group on Solar Electricity in the Built Environment for 8 years and has served as an advisor on energy and environmental issues to 4 Governors, 8 US Senators and 4 presidential candidates as well as a number of electric utilities. He frequently delivers lectures and workshops on solar-powered buildings to general, professional and student audiences in the US and abroad – including USGBC and AIA events.

He is the author of The Solar Electric House and Solar Electric Buildings, an Overview of Today’s Applications and the editor and contributing author of Photovoltaics in the Built Environment, a Design Guide for Architects and Engineers as well as contributing author to Photovoltaics in Buildings and Building with Photovoltaics.

Articles about him and his work have appeared in some 100 publications including TIME Architecture, Architectural Record, Environmental Design and Construction, World Architecture, Popular Science, Spectrum, Wired, Forbes, New Age, Fortune and Business Week and on television and in energy and environmental documentaries.

Steven received the first ‘Inherit the Earth Award’ from Connecticut College in 1993 for his ‘pioneering work in furthering sustainable energy’. In the spring of 1999, TIME magazine named him an ‘Environmental Hero of the Planet’. In the spring of 2001, the American Solar Energy Society honored him with its Charles Greeley Abbot award - for lifetime achievement in advancing solar energy. In the spring of 2003, the Audubon Society named him its ‘Environmental Entrepreneur of the Year’.

Steven designed and oversaw the installation of three solar energy systems at the White House in Washington, DC. He has recently completed the design and oversaw the installation of a new ‘solar skin’ for the US Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland and is currently working on two additional solar-powered embassies for the US State Department.