This past weekend, the 2009 Solar Decathlon kicked off on the National Mall in Washington, DC.
Hosted by US Department of Energy and open to the public Oct 9-13 and 15-18, the Solar Decathlon is an international collegiate competition in which student teams compete to design, build, and operate highly energy-efficient, completely solar-powered houses.
Teams will be awarded $100,000 over two years to support the Solar Decathlon’s research goal of reducing the cost of solar-powered homes and advancing solar technology. The winner will be announced on October 16th.
Among the goals of the competition are to inspire the next generation of engineers, designers and builders, to promote an integrated “whole building” approach to architectural design and construction, and to raise awareness among the general public.
The photo above shows the stunning design from The Universidad Politecnica de Madrid. The video below highlights the innovative Lumenhaus entry from Virginia Tech. Videos of other team designs are available at http://www.youtube.com/user/DOESolarDecathlon#p/a
Teams participating in the competition include:
- Cornell University
- Iowa State University
- Penn State University
- Rice University
- Team Alberta: University of Calgary, SAIT Polytechnic, Alberta College of Art+Design, Mount Royal College
- Team Boston: Boston Architectural College, Tufts University
- Team California: Santa Clara University, California College of the Arts
- Team Germany: Technische Universität Darmstadt
- Team Missouri: Missouri University of Science and Technology, University of Missouri
- Team Ontario/BC: University of Waterloo, Ryerson University, Simon Fraser University
- Team Spain: Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
- The Ohio State University
- The University of Arizona
- Universidad de Puerto Rico
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- University of Kentucky
- University of Louisiana at Lafayette
- University of Minnesota
- University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
- Virginia Tech
For more information, visit the Solar Decathalon website.
