Independence Station's potential rating is owed primarily to its use of renewable energy sources - mostly the sun and vegetable oil - and the means of distributing, storing and managing that energy efficiently throughout the building.

Over three-quarters of Pal Town's homes in Japan's Ota City are covered by solar panels. The solar panels were distributed for free in 2002 through a 9.7 billion yen state-backed research to ensure steady supply of power and to prevent blackouts.

For more than 70 years, California's abundance of sunshine has enabled the Lundberg family to grow organic rice in the Central Valley north of Sacramento. Now they are using solar power to churn out myriad rice products, from chips to pasta.