Architecture and engineering students are finishing construction of green homes powered only by the sun for the Solar Decathlon competition in Washington.
The teams, from colleges in the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, and Europe, are competitors in the
Solar Decathlon, a Department of Energy-sponsored contest designed to showcase the
potential of solar energy in buildings. Energy Secretary
Steven Chu, who took a walk through Team California's house on Wednesday afternoon, is scheduled to speak at the opening ceremony Thursday afternoon.
however, students were busy putting the final touches on their 800-square-foot buildings and connecting their solar electric panels to a "microgrid" set up for the event, which feeds excess electricity to the local power grid. After constructing their buildings at home, student teams transport and then reassemble their buildings on the National Mall where they operate on solar power only for 10 days.
Teams are judged by architects and designers in 10 categories, including lighting design, the market viability of their projects, and architectural design. But the route student and faculty teams have taken to self-sustaining buildings is widely different. Some buildings focus on practicality by using only off-the-shelf materials while others have deliberately pushed the envelope on the technology.
At the high end of the high-tech spectrum are the teams from Ontario/B.C., Spain, and Germany which are using building-integrated photovoltaics, or solar cells attached to the siding of their houses. The clapboards made by the German team, which won the competition in 2007, also use super-insulating material on the indoor-facing side, which students say is 10 times more insulating than traditional insulation.
The team from Penn State, meanwhile, is using specially designed solar collectors that use cylindrical, thin-film cells designed to maximize sun exposure.
At the same time, there is clear movement among some schools to show how green-building technology can be accessible. While many of the homes here cost over $500,000 to build, Rice University says that its prototype Zerow House costs $140,000 to build. With smaller panels, it could be made for $80,000. Like Team Boston, the Rice team has found a buyer for their house after the completion.
