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Really, the big win is going to be "efficient air conditioning for poor countries" and "using materials other than concrete to build."

Everyone loves AC. The more money you have the more you use it.

And everyone in poor countries uses concrete to build.

The bad thing is that these two things combine: the concrete box that is your building heats up like a brick oven, making AC work more. Doh!

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Air conditioners are already pretty efficient, so you're not going to get huge wins there.

But solar-powered air conditioning could be a huge win. You can avoid the DC-AC-DC conversion losses, and avoid any impact on the grid. Most people without air conditioning would be quite happy with air conditioning that only works while the sun is shining.

You can add a bit of insulation inside the concrete to make the house require less cooling than (any?) wooden house.

Concrete insulates quite well by itself. I don't understand the GP's complaint. It can be improved, and there are several improved alternatives on the market since basically forever, but it's not bad by itself, and it's certainly better than wood.

(I really thought it would be about concrete CO2 emissions at first.)

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