Being an EcoGeek is becoming ever more fashionable. And, increasingly, there are events where EcoGeek's can gather in style.
Every two years, for two weeks, a village appears on the National Mall providing a window on possibilities for a sustainable future powered by the sun.
The Solar Decathlon is a biennial, ever-cool event, pitting colleges and universities across the nation in ten contests that "center on the ways we use energy in our daily lives."
The Solar Decathlon is a competition in which teams of college and university students compete to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar powered house.
The contest is quite focused:
The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon challenges 20 university-led teams from around the world in 10 contests to design, build, and operate the most attractive, energy-efficient, solar-powered house. Solar Decathlon houses must power all the home energy needs of a typical family using only the power of the sun. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends aesthetics and modern conveniences with maximum energy production and optimal efficiency.
To compete, the teams must design and build energy-efficient homes that are powered exclusively by the sun. The homes must be attractive and easy to live in. They must maintain a comfortable temperature, provide attractive and adequate lighting, power household appliances for cooking and cleaning, power home electronics, and provide hot water. These houses must also power an electric vehicle to meet household transportation needs.
Now, this event could well be different than the previous three as, to put it politely, the White House is a bit more engaged and supportive of the core principles and objectives of the Decathlon.
There are many reasons for the DOE's support to the Solar Decathlon from encouraging "young people to pursue careers in science and engineering, helping the U.S. maintain its technological competitive edge" to education about renewable energy and energy efficiency (for both the students and the general public). The Decathlon also creates requirements to break down stove-pipes, as different academic disciplines work together in ways that typically doesn't occur in the academic environment. This contributes to a larger 'breaking stove-pipes' issue:
To promote an integrated, or "whole building design," approach to new construction. This approach differs from the traditional design-build process, because the design team considers the interactions of all building components and systems to create a more comfortable building, save energy, and reduce environmental impact.
Now, lets take a moment on one specific objective:
To help move solar energy technologies to the marketplace faster. The Solar Decathlon helps accelerate the research and development of energy-efficiency and energy production technologies.
The Iowa State University team has worked hard, amid its efforts addressing the building envelope, to address the issue of doors' thermal characteristics.
They "initiated an alliance between Iowa's Pella Corporation and Acutemp Thermal Systems to manufacture doors with vacuum-insulation, providing an 'R' value of 50. Such doors in an affordable price range are not available in the U.S., so the hope is that they will turn into a new product for the companies."
Other houses have similiar partnerships, for example Team Boston's Curio House has leading edge "Heat glass" technology, in a traditional-looking window, that captures low-angle winter sun energy in an embedded thermal mass to provide warmth throughout cold New England nights. These windows actually serve to heat the home, moving beyond the concept of "R values" which turns on the head the traditional problem that windows can account for significant amounts of a home or buildings heat loss. Penn State's Natural Fusion has a Sunnovations solar hot water system which doesn't require electricity in its operations. And, so on ...
All 20 entrants have Energy COOL features, will create "ooh and ah" moments, and will have elements saying "I'd like to have that."
Yes, this is the "solar" decathlon, but this is far from just about active solar power (whether electrical or thermal) and passive solar design, but the whole building design. And, that design is not just energy and physical environmental focused but also aesthetic qualities: what is the beauty? How livable is the space?
The Solar Decathlon is a chance to take a peek about (quite achievable) futures, in sustainability and quality of life terms. It also is a window on the enthusiasm and capability of students from around the world, working together from many disciplines to produce homes that could help spark changed building practices in the United States and globally.
If interested, there is the "where are they now?" about the 2007 Solar Decathlon homes.
Some other discussions of the 2009 Solar Decathlon:
Some write-ups of the 2007 Solar Decathlon:
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However, you made great points about some cool things that come out of the competition, and how important it is. Some good links too. Although the size constraint and modular construction is imposed by having to move the homes to the competition site, I like that the homes are about 800 sq. ft. because it makes the student architects stretch, to increase the illusion of spaciousness, and like in a yacht, maximize efficient use of every square foot. I also think more future homes will be manufactured/modular.
As the size of the average American house has doubled in the last forty years, the housing industry, and builders of McMansions in particular have gone overboard in creating single-use rooms, and double-height foyers etc., mostly for the purposes of impressing others. That burns energy, both in the embodied energy to build, and energy to run.
Agree with you about the efficient use of space.
http://www.livinggreenmag.com/archives/green_building/solar_decathlon.html
Now, since it's being proven BY KIDS, no less, that "net zero" housing, WHICH CAN ALSO POWER A CAR!!!! is not only possible, but totally live-able, why on earth are people still promoting wilderness-killing Big Solar, Big Wind and Big Transmission instead of focusing on the built environment? I'm sorry but if a bunch of 19 year old kids can build solar houses, so can the boneheads at KB Homes and other mercenary developers, and we could all also retrofit with the majority of their materials and systems.
The BUILT ENVIRONMENT MUST BE THE SOLUTION. Please, leave our wilderness alone, to do what it was meant to do, and keep the focus on improving the already developed areas of our nation, which are fully capable of producing 190% of the US' electricity usage already, using only thin film PV:
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/printable_versions/myths.html
The possibilities are endless and shovel-ready - it's the political will that is missing. People need to fight hard for an energy future owned and controlled by us which does not destroy our planet, including our open spaces, and which does not re-entrench Big Energy monopolists.