A New Olympic Event? Close – It’s the Solar Decathlon!

While most of the teams who will be judged probably feel as though they’ve been through the same training rigours as an Olympic athlete, these competitors are gearing up for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-sponsored Solar Decathlon. Twenty teams from colleges and universities have been selected from across the United States, Canada and Europe to compete in a “design, build and operate” competition for the most attractive and energy-efficient completely solar powered house, incorporating building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV). In addition to bragging rights of having been chosen for this 2009 event, teams will be awarded $100,000 over two years to support the Solar Decathlon’s research goal of reducing the cost of solar-powered homes and advancing solar technology.


This international collegiate competition is an educational program of the United States’ DOE. Last time the event was held, in 2007, the winning team was from Germany (Technische Universität Darmstadt) while the second and third places went to US based University of Maryland and Santa Clara University. This year’s event sees competitors from across the US including Puerto Rico, Canada (1 team from Alberta and 1 from Ontario), Spain, and the previous winning institution, Germany’s Technische Universität Darmstadt.


Competitors will convene at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., from October 9th to the 18th, with the event broken down as follows:


Oct. 8th -16th: Teams compete in 10 contests


Oct. 9th -13th: Houses are open to the public


Oct. 15th -18th:Houses are open to the public


Oct. 19th -21st: Teams disassemble their houses

While the winner has yet to be declared for 2009, the organization is already accepting proposals from teams wishing to enter the 2011 competition. For more information on the Solar Decathlon, please visit http://www.solardecathlon.org/.



www.hicksdistributors.com