Solar Decathlon Teams Prepare to Compete

They call it a decathlon, although there are no tracks to sprint, no javelins to throw. But there are hurdles to jump. That’s because it is the Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon.

In October, the U.S. Department of Energy will host 20 teams of college and university students competing in 10 contests over the course of three weeks to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house. And the public is invited to come and watch!

Here’s how it works: first the solar decathlon teams build their houses. The teams have to raise money, hire contractors and find supplies. Here’s video of Lumenhaus built by one of this year’s teams, Virginia Tech:

Other teams in this years Decathlon include Cornell, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Team Spain, University of Illinois, Team Boston, Team California and Team Ontario/BC. There are 20 in all. Corporate sponsors include Applied Materials, BP, Pepco and Schneider Electric. The U.S. Green Building Council, Alliance for Sustainable Energy and Popular Mechanics are among the supporting sponsors.

Once designed and built, the teams have to transport their houses to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and rebuild them on site in the “solar village”. The houses must meet certain criteria. They must be attractive and easy to live in, maintain comfortable and healthy indoor environmental conditions, feature appealing and adequate lighting, supply energy to household appliances for cooking and cleaning, power home electronics, provide hot water and balance energy production and consumption.

Once the houses are rebuilt on the Mall, the teams get points in 10 different subjective and objective competition areas:

• Architecture
• Market Viability
• Engineering
• Lighting Design
• Communications (i.e., how well the team can communicate the technical aspects of their house)
• Comfort Zone
• Hot Water
• Appliances
• Home Entertainment
• Net Metering

Home entertainment sounds like fun. Teams go through a series of challenges like holding two dinner parties and hosting a movie night for neighbors. Guests award the host team points based on the quality of the meal, movie enjoyment, ambiance, and overall experience.

The opening ceremony will be on October 8th at 1 pm on the National Mall. The Solar Decathlon team houses will be open for public visits 11 a.m.–3 p.m. Monday–Friday and 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays Oct. 9–13 and 15–18. There will also be Consumer Workshops on solar energy and energy-efficiency and two educational exhibits.

The Anatomy of a House exhibit provides tips on saving energy for homeowners with interactive features including demonstrations of several building technologies used in the competition houses as well as a representation of a grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) system that shows how a PV system is set up for a typical home. The Get Smart: Take Charge of Your Energy! Exhibit is all about energy choices.

The DOE says that the purpose of the Solar Decathlon is “to bring attention to one of the biggest challenges we face—an ever-increasing need for energy.” Along the way, they are demonstrating the potential of Zero Energy Homes, homes that produce as much energy as they consume, and giving the next generation of engineers, architects and designers a head start on creating them.