A Boost For Solar Homes

October 13, 2007

On October 12-20, the U.S. Department of Energy’s third Solar Decathlon will bring students from 20 of the world’s leading universities to Washington, DC to transform the National Mall into a Solar Village. The student teams will start assembling their energy-efficient homes on October 3.

Seasoned home builders may soon learn some valuable lessons about incorporating solar energy in home designs from these young university students. The teams of students are competing to design, build and operate the most attractive, effective and energy-efficient solar-powered home. The project is sponsored by the DOE.

The competing students are from the United States, Canada, Spain, Germany and Puerto Rico. Their work will culminate in a display at an innovative, one-of-a-kind Solar Village created on the National Mall in Washington, DC. The event in Washington will give the public an opportunity to observe the powerful combination of solar energy, energy efficiency and the best in home design, according to a DOE spokesperson. The teams’ houses and educational exhibits will be part of the Solar Village.

In striving to stretch every last watt of electricity that’s generated by the solar panels on their roofs, the students absorb the lesson that energy is a limited and precious commodity, it was noted. They are using high-tech materials and design elements in very ingenious ways. A lot of learning takes place while they build their homes.

The teams transported their solar houses to the competition site on the National Mall and will virtually rebuilt them at that point in the Solar Village. The teams are competing in a variety of contests. However, the students really win the competition through the many months of planning, designing, analyzing, redesigning and finally building and improving their homes.

"Today’s solar houses connect with nature to take advantage of heat and light from the sun and cooling breezes and shading," the DOE spokesperson said. "They crank this natural advantage way up by using the newest products and technologies on the market." For more information about the DOE competition, visit their Web site at: www.solardecathlon.org/.

source: Jim Woodard

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