Steve Baer (October 13, 1938 – May 17, 2024) was an American inventor and pioneer of passive solar technology -including his successful invention CoolCell- and filed a number of solar power patents. Baer pioneered and helped popularize the use of zomes in architecture (using geometries different from the rectangle and cube) and wrote a number of books, including Dome Cookbook, Zome Primer and Sunspots: Collected Facts and Solar Fiction. 

Steve Baer served on the board of directors of the U.S. Section of the International Solar Energy Society, and on the board of the New Mexico Solar Energy Association. He was the founder, chairman of the board, president, and director of research at Zomeworks Corporation. He was the creator of Zome Architecture as well as one of the creators of Zometool, a mathematical manipulative tool that had evolved from playground climbers and other structures that had been created by Zomeworks.

Baer’s approach was to develop strategies and products that simplify rather than complicate; he sought to add to, rather than detract from, the self-sufficiency of a building and its occupants.

​

SolarFool is grateful to Steve for his vision and tenacity! We want the warming world to benefit from his work, and so we carry on for him by dubbing his Cool Cell and Double Play technologies 'CoolSky'. Although he did bring Cool Cell to market, Steve and his peers created only prototypes of the year-round Double Play system, and it's precisely this system that's needed today! With our open source model, we invite you to bring his inventions to market! You can access Baer's writings in our Wiki.

Read more about Baer's life here.