DOE’s Solar Decathlon gets underway in DC, despite cloudy skies

DOE’s Solar Decathlon gets underway in DC, despite cloudy skiesOf course it was cloudy for the opening days of the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Solar Decathlon 2011. That's just the lovely mid-Atlantic fall weather showing off. It was the first time people outside of the teams and the DOE really had a chance to see the solar village built by 19 collegiate teams in less than two weeks—on marshy land bordering the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.

Over the next week their homes are being judged in 10 events to determine which is the best solar home.

But the cloudy weather couldn’t dim the happy but weary spirits of this year’s contestants, following the marathon of moving, unpacking, building and finishing their homes.

The event is a university competition for the schools of architecture and engineering, according Richard King, DOE’s Director of the Solar Decathlon.

“It's very multidiscipline to design and build—from the ground up—a very highly efficient, affordable, attractive solar house,” he said. “It's a two-year endeavor for these universities to design a sustainable house. Many of the architecture classes assign it to 30 or 40 students in their spring semester.”

Over the next year and a half, the students make numerous design plans then choose the best one to build, according to King. But that’s not all.

“They've got to organize the team, raise funds, manage the event, [build the home] and then take their house down and bring it to Washington, D.C.,” King said. “The decathlon gets its name from the contests.”

To figure out which home is the winner, they are evaluated in 10 different contests, some judged by professional juries, others via sensors and measurements. Each contest is worth 100 points.

“The team that gets the most in the 1,000 point contest [is the winner],” he said.

The contest checks the homes for things like how much hot water they’re able to produce and whether or not the home is able to produce as much electricity as it uses.

“At the end of the 10 day contest, they must have a zero net meter,” King said. “On sunny days, power goes back to the grid, on cloudy days, they're probably using more [power from the grid],” he said.

Each of the homes had a solar array designed to produce enough electricity to offset its electric use completely. But to do that, they also designed homes that were highly insulated and used energy efficient appliances, like magnetic induction stovetops, and Energy Star-labeled washers and dryers.

This year’s event includes teams from four countries outside the U.S., including Belgium, Canada, China and New Zealand—only Canada had competed in the event before. The rest of the teams were from the U.S.

Teams competing in this year’s event included: Appalachian State, N.C.; Canada; Florida Int'l; Illinois, Maryland; Middlebury College, New Zealand; Ohio State; Parsons NS Stevens, N.J.; Purdue, Ind., SCI-Arc/Caltech, Calif., Team Belgium, Team China, Team Florida, Team Massachusetts, Team New Jersey, Team New York, Tennessee and Tidewater Virginia.

Some teams were composed of students from just one college or university, like the team from Appalachian State College of North Carolina. Other times they consisted of numerous universities within one state, like Team Florida, which had students from four universities in Florida, including The University of South Florida, Florida State University, The University of Central Florida and The University of Florida.

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Photo: Chris Meehan / Clean Energy Authority.