Crestone Solar School, located in Crestone, CO, was founded by Paul Shippee in 2005. Crestone was a natural choice of location, as passive solar homes and alternative building techniques are popular in this area.

Paul has been teaching and training people in solar applications for more than 30 years. With a degree in Civil Engineering, Paul is an award-winning solar designer, engineer, consultant and builder. He has designed and built every kind of passive solar home and installed many active solar heating systems in Boulder, Larimer, Chaffee and Saguache Counties (Colorado) over the years.

Paul specializes in solar energy design and consultation for clients interested in Passive Solar Homes and Drain-Back solar hot water systems for radiant floor heating and domestic hot water. Paul’s approach to solar applications is holistic and includes a bright awareness of energy conservation in the whole solar home design.

In addition to solar design and consulting, Paul has been teaching both solar theory and practical applications to homeowners, architects, engineers, plumbers, owner-builders, bankers and electricians since 1974. Working with both new homes and retrofit challenges, Paul has created 100% solar heated homes in the sunny, cold climates of Colorado and Nebraska.

At the left, owner-builder solar clients visit a completed solar job in Salida, Colorado. Eight flat plate solar thermal collectors mounted on the roof combine with an attached solar greenhouse to produce a unique and attractive 100% solar heated home. The greenhouse provides daytime heating while the collectors store heat in a thick radiant concrete slab for nighttime release.

Morning sun rises on the solar heated home of Crestone Solar School high in the Rocky Mountains of Southern Colorado. We teach live workshops, online courses and ebooks for a variety of holistic solar applications. Besides solar home heating we teach a variety of alternative & energy-saving home building technologies like straw bale and rammed earth (thermal mass). The theory and practice of photovoltaics (PV or solar electric) is also covered.

Did you know: Enough sun falls on the Earth in one hour to power the entire world’s energy needs for one year!