Solar Decathalon
The coolest thing going on in the nation’s capitol this week? The U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathalon on the National Mall. Open to the public this week, the Solar Decathalon is an inter-collegiate competition in which students compete to design, build and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar power house–in two weeks.
It’s a very focused race to the finish for these teams of college and university students. The goal, according to the Department of Energy, is for each of the 20 teams to produce houses that “must power all the home energy needs of a typical family using only the power of the sun. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends aesthetics and modern conveniences with maximum energy production and optimal efficiency.” Houses must maintain a comfortable temperature, provide adequate and attractive lighting, power typical household appliances and electronics, and efficiently heat normal amounts of water.
What goes on display at a Solar Decathlon could very well end up being on the market soon. Students in architecture and engineering make up many of the teams, and the cool developments from past competitions are now popping up in green building projects around the nation.
Teams include private and public universities in the United States, as well as university teams from Alberta, Canada; Germany; Ontario and British Columbia; and Spain. A Missouri team from MU and the Missouri University of Science and Technology received one of the twenty competition spots.
The Solar Decathlon houses are open to the public October 9-13 and 15-18. The next competition will be in 2011.
Walking through the Solar Decathlon, it is hard not to have many “I want that” moments or think “I could live in this” (actually, I want to live in this). Wandering around, the “oohs”
and “ahs” of attendees, at all ages, are constant. (My children, for example,
definitely want to go back again, having been to the past two.) If you can, this
is an Energy COOL must do event.
Now, this event could well be different than the previous three as, to put it
politely, the White House is a bit more engaged and supportive of the core
principles and objectives of the Decathlon.
There are many reasons for the DOE’s support to the Solar Decathlon from encouraging “young people to pursue careers in science and engineering, helping the U.S. maintain its technological competitive edge” to education about renewable energy and energy efficiency (for both the students and the general public). The Decathlon also creates requirements to break down stove-pipes, as different academic disciplines work together in ways that typically doesn’t occur in the academic environment. This contributes to a larger ‘breaking stove-pipes’ issue:
To promote an integrated, or “whole building design,” approach to new construction. This approach differs from the traditional design-build process, because the design team considers the interactions of all building components and systems to create a more comfortable building, save energy, and reduce environmental impact.
Buildings are the largest single energy user and largest source of greenhouse gas emissions — more integrated approaches, such as driven by the Solar Decathlon, could help us address that issue while providing us homes and buildings that are more pleasing, healthier, and more productive.
Now, lets take a moment on one specific objective:
To help move solar energy technologies to the marketplace faster. The Solar Decathlon helps accelerate the research and development of energy-efficiency and energy production technologies.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/a-siegel/the-race-for-the-sun-raci_b_313825.html