Until recently there has been no straightforward way for architects to design buildings which generate a sizeable proportion of their electricity from renewable energy sources. Solar photovoltaic power offers architects this option, and their professional skills are needed to develop intelligent, innovative and aesthetically pleasing designs incorporating solar photovoltaics. There are many opportunities for creative design and imaginative thinking as photovoltaics can be applied to so many parts of a building’s external structure. Nearly seventy per cent of a sample of recently polled architects indicated that they would consider installing solar photovoltaics in the design of a new low energy building 13.