Build Next Year’s Sukkah With Hybrid Bamboo (aka Solar Schach)

Is taking down this year’s sukkah already getting you thinking about next year’s?

Have the end of the Jewish holidays, return to work, and impending cold weather got you down?  Fantasizing about next year’s warm evenings spent inside an outdoor sukkah (or temporary booth) might help fight that feeling.  This year’s much-publicized Sukkah City design competition in New York’s Union Square might have inspired you to go above and beyond the call of sukkah duty next year and bring some serious design quality to your booth.

In the spirit of the temporary, outdoor sukkah bringing you into closer contact with nature, how about making it super sustainable as well?

“Solar Schach” (the panels of which you can see in the photo above) is a specially engineered sukkah covering made out of the multi-purpose eco material, bamboo.  The particular bamboo hybrid used to make the Solar Schach, Bamboo2, contains photovoltaic cells that enable it to produce electricity.

So since the Solar Schach is both a plant material (and therefore kosher to be used as a sukkah covering) and in perfect position to collect solar power since it is positioned on the booth’s roof – it is sure to have your neighbors talking.  Supposedly, Solar Schach is strong enough to produce enough energy to power the nighttime lighting of a 10×10 sukkah AND have enough to power cell phones and other small gadgets.

: Jewventions

Read more about funky, sustainable sukkahs::
Which Earthy, Temporary Home Would You Choose? Sukkah City, NYC 2010
And Ye Shall Live in Sustainable Booths
Sue Tourkin Komet Integrates Recycling (and a whole lot of other stuff) Into her Sukkah

Author: Karen Chernick

Much to the disappointment of her Moroccan grandmother, Karen became a vegetarian at the age of seven because of a heartfelt respect for other forms of life. She also began her journey to understand her surroundings and her impact on the environment. She even starting an elementary school Ecology Club and an environmental newsletter in the 3rd grade. (The proceeds of the newsletter went to non-profit environmental organizations, of course.) She now studies in New York. Karen can be reached at karen (at) greenprophet (dot) com.

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