A lower energy alternative is to build homes with built-in heat sink loops. Basically it’s just a deep hole dug straight down that you loop a heat transfer fluid through and through a heat exchanger in the home. So if it is hot outside, you are pumping the heat in the home into the ground. The only cost is the pump which uses a very minor amount of electricity. If that becomes insufficient, then you can also use that fluid with a heat pump to increase the temperature differential. The key element here is allowing for a non-heat pump. Looping of the fluid through a heat exchanger that blows air through it.

This does require putting in the deep hole before the foundation or the rest of the house, but will allow for a significant decrease in the cost of heating or cooling the home.

If it is hotness that is the problem in that area and the ground is hot from geothermal energy then you should not build there unless you are able to use that heat and significant ways for cooking, hot water and making electricity to offset.