physics<\/a> major has championed the merits of solar living.<\/p>\n\u201cIt is the only energy that makes sense,\u201d he says. The planet has an abundance of solar energy, which has the power to grow food and distill water \u2014 why not use it to generate electricity?<\/span><\/p>\nAt his house in Troy, N.Y., Borton relies on solar panels (several of which he installed) to deliver electricity. Where the sun is positioned \u2014 overhead in the summer, farther south in the winter \u2014 determines how it hits the south-facing windows, delivering the season\u2019s desired temperature. <\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIf you design the house to be energy efficient and you get the right size windows,\u201d Borton says, \u201cthen the heat coming in can match the energy required to heat the house.\u201d When winter arrives and the sun occasionally doesn\u2019t shine, they burn a cord of firewood, gathered from the trees around their house. Because his electric bills are cheap, Borton saves thousands a year.<\/p>\n
When Borton built his home in 1982, passive solar houses weren\u2019t the norm, but as Americans seek to be more sustainable, these houses are becoming more common. The U.S. Department of Energy has a section of its website devoted to passive solar home design, and Habitat for Humanity has built more eco-friendly homes in recent years. <\/span><\/p>\nBorton believes everyone should move away from fossil fuels and start using solar energy \u2014 if not for the cost savings, for the good of the planet. \u201cNot doing that isn\u2019t shooting yourself in the foot; it\u2019s shooting yourself in the head,\u201d he says. \u201cYou can\u2019t deny climate change if you understand physics of the atmosphere.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nRetirement has given Borton an excuse to focus on his solar ventures, and his current one isn\u2019t restricted to land. <\/span><\/p>\nBorton has been around boats since before he was able to walk, exploring upstate New York in canoes and Adirondack guide boats. Fast forward a few decades, when his Grumman aluminum canoe became tarnished from sitting in the woods. Using his physics know-how, he upgraded it with two solar panels, plus a battery and motor to make a moving boat that requires no gasoline. <\/span><\/p>\nBecause his experiment was so successful (it was built 15 years ago and is still in operation), he made more, completing a 40-foot boat in 2015. Using a silicon crystal in its solar panel, light converts into electricity, powering the boat. It can hold up to 12 tons of cargo, and its first voyage transported bales of cardboard down the Erie Canal to be recycled. <\/span><\/p>\nBorton\u2019s most recent solar-electric boat is 44 feet long and is in the process of being certified by the United States Coast Guard. It is now owned by the Hudson River Maritime Museum in Kingston, N.Y., and will start taking passengers on tours along the Hudson River this summer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Borton \u201965, a retired physics professor at RPI, lives in a passive solar house and builds solar-powered boats. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1222,"featured_media":2131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[445,446,113],"coauthors":[168],"class_list":["post-2370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alumni-spotlights","category-alumni-updates","tag-energy","tag-solar-power","tag-sustainability"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palXSH-Ce","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/05\/Borton.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2370"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2428,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370\/revisions\/2428"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2370"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}