Solar Decathlon returns to Washington

This October, for the fourth time, the Solar Decathlon will fill the National Mall from the Capitol to the Washington Monument, putting Solar front and center at a time when those in the Capitol building ought to be passing a major bill to benefit the technology. 

For both those reasons, it would be an excellent time for you to visit Washington DC:  a time when you can see how some of the best and brightest young minds can integrate solar power with real living environments, and a time when you can visit your Congresspersons and insist on a bill that enables that very thing to happen in the nation at large.  (You can find tips on making personal visits to your Congresspersons here). This year the event will host twenty university teams: fifteen from the U.S., two from Canada, and one each from Spain, Puerto Rico and Germany (last year’s winner, the Technische Universitat Darmstadt).  The teams must design and build solar-powered energy-efficient homes, which will be judged in ten different contests:

• architecture

• market viability

• engineering

• lighting design

• communications

• comfort zone

• hot water

• appliances

• home entertainment

• net metering 

The houses will be judged in these categories between October 8 and 16, and will then be open to the public from October 9-13 and October 15-18.  This will be an excellent time for you to experience the leading edge of energy-efficient and solar design. 

The Solar Decathlon is an educational project of the U.S. Department of Energy, supported by the Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. More information is available on the Solar Decathlon web site.In a later issue of Solar Citizen, we’ll be looking at how lessons learned from previous Solar Decathlons have found their way into the construction marketplace.