Steven J. Strong is President of Solar Design Associates, Inc., a group of Architects and Engineers dedicated to the design of environmentally responsive, sustainable buildings, and the engineering and integration of renewable energy systems which incorporate the latest in innovative technology.

He founded the firm in 1974 after serving as an energy-systems engineering consultant on the Alaskan pipeline where he became convinced there were easier, less-costly, more environmentally desirable ways to provide comfort and convenience to the consumer than "going to the ends of the earth to extract the last drop of fossil fuel". Drawing on his background in architecture and engineering, he has earned the firm an international reputation for the pioneering integration of renewable energy systems - especially solar electricity - with environmentally responsive building design.

Over the last 25 years, he has designed dozens of homes and buildings which provide delightful living/working environments while requiring little or no purchased energy - the majority of which are powered by solar electricity. In 1985, working with New England Electric, he completed the world's first PV-powered neighborhood in central Massachusetts. In 1996, he worked with the Olympic village design team to field the world's largest roof-top PV system at the Summer Games in Atlanta.

He currently represents the US on the International Energy Agency's expert working group on PV-in-Buildings and has served as an advisor on energy and environmental issues to 3 Governors, 2 US Senators and 3 presidential candidates as well as a number of electric utilities. His firm provides design and engineering support on solar energy to architectural firms in the US and abroad. He is the author of The Solar Electric House and Solar Electric Buildings, an Overview of Today's Applications and the editor and contributing author of Photovoltaics in the Built Environment, a Design Guide for Architects and Engineers. In the spring of 1999, TIME Magazine honored him as an 'environmental hero'.

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