Photo credit: www.inhabit.com

You may have read in the news recently about the Solar Decathlon, an event sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. The festivities are just wrapping up now, with Team Germany claiming the crown.

So what is the Solar Decathlon? It’s a three-week event in which college-aged teams compete to see who can create the attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house. All the competing houses are lined up along the Washington Mall right now — all together they’re called the Solar Village — so the public can see these innovative structures. The purpose is to promote awareness of the global energy crisis and highlight the usage of renewable resources.

There are three phases to the Solar Decathlon. Phase 1 is Building, in which the teams have to raise money, communicate with the contractors, and collect supplies. Phase 2 is the process of moving the houses to the Solar Village, and Phase 3 is the competition itself. The structures are graded according to architecture, market viability, engineering, lighting design, communications, comfort zone, hot water, appliances, home entertainment, and net metering. Each of these contests has an individual winner, and then an overall winner is declared based on the scores from the individual contests.

With this kind of fun competitions, we can show the general public that this kind of technology is possible and attainable. What would your solar-powered house look like?