The Solar Decathlon returns to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., this month, where twenty teams of university students from around the world are showcasing their best ideas for solar-powered homes of the future.
Working in multidisciplinary teams, students in engineering, architecture, business and other fields spend nearly two years designing, building and testing their houses in preparation for the competition. Projects are then disassembled, transported and reassembled in Washington, where they’re evaluated on the basis of energy efficiency, energy production, architectural design, market appeal, affordability, and more.
This year’s competition runs from September 23 through October 2, and like previous events in 2002, 2005, 2007 and 2009, is free and open to the public. More than 300.000 members of the public and building trades attended the 2009 event and associated workshops. So popular has the Solar Decathalon become internationally that it now has counterparts in Europe (2010 and 2012) and in China (2013).
Over the next several days, we’ll feature several of the entries here at EcologyToday Perspectives.
