July, 2007 Cover Story

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY’S SOLAR DECATHLON An Energy Efficient Competition
STORY BY MIRANDA GATEWOOD
© 2007 NETWORKING® MAGAZINE 2020 GUIDE TO GOING GREEN

Every two years, teams from colleges and universities around the world vie for the role to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered house in an international competition called the Solar Decathlon. Each house must be completely powered by the sun. Electricity is generated by rooftop solar panels and the houses incorporate building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV).

This October, twenty teams will transport their solar houses to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where they will form a solar village.

Ten different contests will determine an overall winner. Using only solar power, the teams must generate enough electricity to run a modern household. This affects the selection of materials, products and appliances used in the houses.

The teams have been selected through a proposal system by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in partnership with its National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

One goal of the Solar Decathlon project is to develop and demonstrate solar-powered homes by the year 2015 to reduce the whole-house, averaged energy cost to ten cents per kilowatt-hour.

Teams selected for the competition 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 American Institute of Architects (AIA), American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), BP, and Sprint are partnering with DOE as title sponsors. For information, go to www.solardecathlon.org or www.energy.gov.

Solar Decathlon 2007 will take place on the National Mall in Washington D.C., from October 12 to 20, 2007.

A "solar village" of team houses created on the campuses of twenty different universities, shipped to and re-assembled in Washington will be open for public tours. On October 17, the houses are closed for the competition.

The 20 teams are selected to compete in the 2007 Solar Decathlon are Carnegie Mellon University, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany, Cornell University, Texas A&M University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain, Kansas State University, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, Lawrence Technological University, Southfield, MI, University of Colorado, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Cincinnati, New York Institute of Technology, University of Illinois, Pennsylvania State University, University of Maryland, Santa Clara University, University of Missouri - Rolla, Team Montréal (École de Technologie Supérieure, Université de Montréal, McGill University), Montréal, Quebec, Canada, and University of Texas at Austin.

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