In Northern Europe it's similar to Germany. Actually in my home town (Kuopio, Finland) the first passive/zero energy student housing (a 3 floor block of flats)

In Northern Europe it's similar to Germany. Actually in my home town (Kuopio, Finland) the first passive/zero energy student housing (a 3 floor block of flats) is nearing its completion. The US Ambassador to Finland Bruce Oreck visited the site a few weeks ago. He himself is quite active in this field. Few pics here: http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nollaenergia.fi%2Fmediapankki.html&sl=fi&tl=en http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&h... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house Our ("socialist") method of operation is setting super strict national building requirements. Very soon you won't be allowed to build other than low energy housing. The people are quite happy to oblige, similar to them liking paying taxes. There will also be governmental subsidies for converting some of the remaining oil heating to geothermal (some 20% of the equipment acquisition cost + you can also deduct 3000€/year of the paid work done on the house from your personal taxes).