Solar Design Competition Goes for Low Impact Homes

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For three weeks in October 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy will host the Solar Decathlon in Washington DC. 20 teams of college and university students will compete to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house.

http://www.twilightearth.com/solarpower/solar-decathlon-on-the-mall-in-washington-dc/

The three-week event kicked of with an opening ceremony that featured a speech from Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who announced an additional $87 million solar-targeted award for solar energy projects. Here’s a look at some of the impressive solar submissions and the opening day events.-

The Solar Decathlon is also an event to which the public is invited to observe the powerful

combination of solar energy, energy efficiency, and the best in home design.
Read the highlights and breaking news on this event at Inhabitat’s web site –

http://www.inhabitat.com/

Here's from their web site:

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We’ve been bringing you breaking coverage of this week’s Solar Decathlon in Washington DC throughout the week and one of the most interesting homes to emerge from the competition is the North House, a super sleek, high-tech solar powered home designed to generate more energy than it consumes – an especially impressive feat granted that the home was designed for the extreme climate of Northern Canada. Currently in 4th place at the Decathlon, Team Ontario/BC is exhibiting an incredibly impressive showing. With two days left of the competition, they still have a good chance to eek out some more points in the categories of Engineering, Lighting and the biggie, Net Metering, which could still put them in the lead.

We’re excited to report that as of today Team California is in 1st place at the Solar Decathlon competition going on right now in Washington DC with their stunning Refract House! Just moments ago, they emerged victorious from the Communications portion of the scoring and as of yesterday they received an almost perfect score of 98 out of a 100 for Architecture and a 92 out of a 100 for Market Viability – combined with their other scores, this puts them in 1st place as of now. Close on their tails are Team Germany and Team Ontario/BC, and all the teams are anticipating the remaining scores which will be rolling in throughtout the rest of the week culminating in the score for Net Metering, which garners the hugest chunk of points. Stay with us on Inhabitat for news and updates on the winning teams. We can’t wait to see who the winner is on Friday!"