Solar Decathalon

solar decathalon overhead

Recently, the National Mall in Washington DC was transformed into an outdoor exhibit for the future of home design. The Solar Decathalon is held every other year and focuses on a unique design challenge.

Student lead teams from around the world competed to build live-in prototypes for houses with accustomed American features–and sometimes more. The houses were required to meet certain energy usage requirements like a TV, computer, hot showers, etc, and also meet indoor climate requirements like temperature and humidity moderation.  All this while being completely off grid.
A team from Germany, where solar incentives have driven the market for years, won the competition, ahead of teams from University of Maryland and Santa Clara University. There were 20 finalists invited to come to DC.

At 9am this Sunday morning on CBS Morning News there will be a segment on the competition by the NYT columnist David Pogue.


Posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 4:13 pm | Tagged in Energy Efficiency, Photovoltaics | posted by Marc

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