Inhabitat » Solar Decathlon

Sun Powered LUMENHAUS has a Shifting Solar Facade

The 2009 Solar Decathlon may have come to a close, but we wanted to shine a little more light on one of our favorite projects, Virginia Tech’s LUMENHAUS. Ranked 4th in this year’s Architecture category, the LUMENHAUS is named for its “power of light” attributes and architectural references to the BauHaus movement, and was particularly inspired by Mies Van Der Rohe’s Farnsworth House. Like its historic reference, it is comprised of all glass walls, maximizing exposure to natural daylight. The house features an automated “Eclipse System” of highly insulated translucent panels that filters the light using independent sliding layers, creating an ever-changing pattern throughout the day.

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Links Roundup of the Week: Solar, Solar, Solar

by Olivia Chen, 10/16/09

The winner of the Solar Decathlon Competition was announced today — congratulations Team Germany! We’ve been following the competition happenings all week. Our friends have been as abuzz as us, and we’ve noticed that everyone is in a flurry of excitement about solar technology and energy efficient building. Check out what we saw this week!

Treehugger annouced the architecture and market viability awards on Tuesday.

GreenOptions reports on Steven Chu’s decision to spend an additional $87 million on solar technology.

JetsonGreen, our favorite green home expert, highlights the 20 beautiful, solar-powered homes of this year’s Solar Decathlon competition.

NYTimes comments that the students are proving that solar living doesn’t mean compromising lifestyle.

Clean Technica shows us 10 solar technologies to be exicted about.

CleanTechnica also reports that California will be giving more money to small-scale solar projects.

And of course, don’t forget to check out our coverage.

SOLAR DECATHLON 2009: Cornell Silo House

by Diane Pham, 10/16/09

Things really heated up this past few days as we inched closer to finding out who the winner of this year’s Solar Decathlon would be, and in the end Team Germany’s surPLUShouse stole the show. We were sad to see that Cornell University’s Silo House did not place in the top 3, but we still love this totally unconventional and clever home which held steadfastly in the ranks as part of the top 10 throughout the week. As a compact modular structure, the Silo House proves that impressive green, energy-efficient things do come in small spaces!

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Illinois Gable House Takes 2nd Prize in Solar Decathlon

by Bridgette Meinhold, 10/16/09

This morning the University of Illinois took second place in the Solar Decathlon with its gorgeous solar powered Gable House. The unique farmhouse-inspired home made an excellent showing at this year’s competition and was surpassed only at the last moment by Team Germany. Weighing in at 897 points out of a total 1,000, the home took top honors in many of the individual categories and features a solar roof capable of generating four times the amount of energy it consumes.

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Germany’s Solar Coated surPLUShome Wins Solar Decathlon!

The final results just rolled in from this year’s Solar Decathlon, and team Germany’s sleek surPLUShome finished first in an incredible upset victory! The German team took top honors in the Net Metering and Engineering categories this morning, steamrolling the competition to secure their second Decathlon win. This year’s home features a sleek, dark facade that is almost completely covered in photovoltaic panels and can provide more than twice the amount of energy it needs. Check out our cool video from America.gov about the house after the jump!

Team Germany Wins the 2009 Solar Decathlon!

GERMANY WINS THE 2009 SOLAR DECATHLON!

Drumroll please… after an exciting week of competition and judging, the winner of the Solar Decathlon 2009 has just been announced, and it’s a stunner! In a huge upset (as Team Illinois was leading on the scoreboard until just a few moments ago) the …

SOLAR DECATHLON 2009: Team Ontario/BC’s North House For Cold Climates

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.

$Team California’s Refract House Currently Leading Solar Decathlon!$

Team California’s Refract House Currently Leading Solar Decathlon!

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!

Links Roundup of the Week: Solar Decathlon

It’s finally the week of the Solar Decathlon competition! From Thursday, October 8 to Friday, October 16, 20 multi-disciplinary students teams made up of architects, engineers, and designers will participate in 10 contests to determine the winner. You can take a peek at each team’s standing here. Taking place …

SOLAR DECATHLON 2009: Rice University’s $140,000 ZEROW House Keeps Up With the High Rollers

The Solar Decathlon, the super solar architecture competition held in Washington D.C. bi-annually, officially kicked off today, and Rice University’s awesomely affordable ZEROW House is already making waves. The first round of evaluations took place yesterday, and this low-budget underdog placed 4th among the twenty competitors after being recognized in the categories Comfort Zone and Appliances. What is most impressive about this team is that the average budget of the 20 solar decathlon houses at the mall is $490,000, while the ZEROW home was built for only $140,000!!! Even more impressive, the ZEROW House was designed specifically for Houston’s Third Ward Neighborhood as part of Project Row House – an organization that seeks to develop housing for low-to moderate-income families.

Natural Fusion: Penn State’s Solar Decathlon House

A team of students from Penn State recently unveiled their Natural Fusion residence, which has been selected as one of 20 ultra-efficient homes set to make an appearance at this year’s Solar Decathlon. The elegant structure is wrapped in living walls and utilizes a host of energy-efficient features including a green roof lined with photovoltaic panels and large windows that bathe the interiors in daylight.

$Refract House | Solar Decathlon + Architecture City$

Refract House | Solar Decathlon + Architecture City

Project managers open the doors to Refract House, ready for Solar Decathlon 2009, Photo by Kevin Gardner

What happens when an architect and an engineer walk into a Jesuit university in Silicon Valley and end up on a lightbender wholly rolling for the nation’s capital? This year’s Solar Decathlon, a Dept. of Energy best-of competition for smart and sunny houses, chose Team California to compete in the finals in Washington, D.C. The West Coast team is the result of two very different schools joining forces — 100+ students, graduates and advisers were pooled from Santa Clara University (mostly engineering) and California College of the Arts (architecture and design) to create this solar dream team that created this truly energy-efficient, sun-powered Refract House.

Lumenhaus – Virginia Tech’s Smart Solar House

We’re getting excited about this year’s Solar Decathlon and love Virginia Tech’s zero-energy, smart house. Lumenhaus — which is a combination of Lumen, meaning power of light, and Haus, which is a reference to the Bauhaus architectural movement — is a high-tech home that will be sure to garner a lot of attention at the upcoming competition. In fact it’s only one of two US teams to be accepted into the Solar Decathlon Europe, where it will compete against teams from around the world.

$Refract House: Students Design Sun-Powered Zero Energy Home$

Refract House: Students Design Sun-Powered Zero Energy Home

California College of the Arts (CCA) and Santa Clara University recently assembled a team of over 100 students to design the Refract House, an ultra energy-efficient dwelling that promotes an “innovative and cost-effective strategy to climate-friendly building”. Taking up just 800 square feet, the Refract House is compact, energy efficient and green in just about every way imaginable, combining state of the art climate and energy monitoring technologies with solar-thermal and photovoltaic systems.

SOLAR DECATHLON: University of Texas at Austin Green Home

The fabulous Solar Decathlon just wrapped up on this weekend, and was home to many a shining example in high-tech solar design. The University of Texas at Austin’s Bloom House took 10th place in the solar design competition, but really stood out to us as a paragon of beautiful zero-energy design. The team successfully brought a bit of “don’t mess with Texas” attitude to design, combining a large open plan with a Texas-sized kitchen, the greenest technologies, and warm local materials.

LEAFHOUSE: Maryland’s Solar Decathlon Zero Energy Home

The second place winner of this year’s Solar Decathlon is the University of Maryland’s Leaf House, which is, as the name would imply, green, naturally inspired, and modular to boot. When designing the zero energy home, the student team drew inspiration from the simple, yet vastly complex leaf. The abode boasts every sustainable system from the obvious high-tech solar panels to a liquid desiccant waterfall to control humidity, grey water recycling, green wall, and even a plug to charge an electric car.

GERMANY WINS THE 2007 SOLAR DECATHLON!

Drumroll please……..

It has just been announced that the German University, Technische Universität Darmstadt is the winner of this years Solar Decathlon competition! In order to win this prestigious design competition, the German team had to beat out a whole slew of American universities on U.S. turf (the National Mall in Washington DC). Frankly, however, we’re not surprised to see a winning design emerge from the land of high-quality engineering. And the Darmstadt Solar Decathlon house was a worthy winner of the coveted prize. The stunning solar house was simple, elegant, and extremely innovative in its use of solar shutters and fold-up interior space.

CONGRATULATIONS DARMSTADT!!!

INHABITAT REPORTS FROM SOLAR DECATHLON – Photos!

We came, we saw, and we were won-over by the ingenious designs and architectural talent on display at this years Solar Decathlon on the Mall in Washington DC. As if it weren’t enough of a feat to design and build a zero-energy house which is ENTIRELY POWERED BY THE SUN, many of the student teams at this year’s Solar Decathlon went above and beyond the mere zero-energy requirements of the competition to produce architecturally stunning houses that are as beautiful and livable as they are energy efficient.

SOLAR DECATHLON 2007: Darmstadt’s Stunning Solar House

Combining the manufacturing expertise of Volkswagen with a beautiful modern design sensibility, the Technische Universität Darmstadt’s wowed the crowds this week at the 2007 Solar Decathlon with their gorgeously innovative Solar Decathlon home. The Darmstadt home combines both high-tech active solar and low-tech passive solar components into smart operable building envelope of movable photovoltaic shutters. This clever solar shutter system bears more than a passing resemblance to old school German wooden shutters — only writ large, spanning every exterior surface of house and covered with photovolaic panels that generate electricity while they simultaneously shade the house from the sun.

SOLAR DECATHLON 2007: University of Colorado Solar House

One of the biggest highlights from the 2007 Solar Decathlon comes from reigning victor University of Colorado- and the design is proving once again that the team has what it takes to be solar design champions. Committed to defending their 2002 and 2005 titles, the 2007 CU Solar Decathlon team has brought a versatile, modular design that integrates “shining” examples of solar technology, recycled shipping containers, and a super cool aesthetic.

SOLAR DECATHLON 2007: Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

One thing that you’ll immediately notice while walking around the solar decathlon event in Washington is how pretty much every house features a sloped roof of some sort. Some, tend to feature it less than others, by making it part of the buildings volume, or by building the roof out of lighter materials, thus disguising that throughout the building. On the other hand, you get entries like the one from the students at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, where the students decided to make their roof a striking element in their design, and thus turning their entry into one of the most original houses in this years solar decathlon.

SOLAR DECATHLON STARTS TOMORROW!

This year’s Solar Decathlon is just hours away- the festivities start TOMORROW in Washington DC with 20 college teams from around the globe competing to design, build, and operate the coolest, greenest energy-efficient, fully solar-powered house! Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Solar Decathlon is open to the public October 12th-20th at Washington’s National Mall. Come on down to find out whose design get their shining day in the sun as reigning solar champ! We’ll be there this weekend to report all the news.

CORNELL ZERO-ENERGY SOLAR DECATHLON HOME

When Cornell students David Wax, Emile Chin-Dickey, Stephanie Horowitz, Benjamin Uyeda, and Jordan Goldman set out trying to create an off-the-grid solar-powered home for the biennial Solar Decathlon Competition, little did they know that their efforts would launch their careers as gurus of Zero-Energy design. The Solar Decathlon, which is held on the mall in Washington DC every two years — and kicks off again tomorrow! — is a green design-build competition where student teams compete to see who can create the most energy efficient solar house. The Cornell students’ cleverly designed home was so smart and energy efficient that it took second prize in 2005’s prestigious competition, inspiring the group to start their own business dedicated to designing zero energy homes.

SOLAR DECATHLON KICKS OFF THIS FRIDAY!

We’ve been anxiously awaiting this year’s Solar Decathlon event, and this Friday, October 12th, the festivities start in Washington DC with 20 college teams from around the globe competing to design, build, and operate the coolest, greenest energy-efficient, fully solar-powered house! Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Solar Decathlon is open to the public October 12th-20th at Washington’s National Mall. Come on down to find out whose design get their shining day in the sun as reigning solar champ! We’ll be there this weekend to report all the news.

SOLAR DECATHLON: Solar house design competition

How difficult is it to design a house fully powered by the sun? That’s what the U.S. Department of Energy is trying to find out. To do this, they have staged, once again, the Solar decathlon, a competition challenging 20 college teams from around the globe to design, build, and operate an energy-efficient, fully solar-powered house that will be able to satisfy the needs of a typical family, and look good doing it.

WHILE THE LIGHT’S STILL GREEN

We’re feeling extremely fortunate this week to have Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG and Archinect providing another illuminating guest post. Thanks Geoff!

There have been some extraordinary claims in the newpapers lately. James Lovelock, of Gaia hypothesis fame, has said we’re too late, the show’s over: Earth’s climate is already in a runaway feedback loop, “and before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable.” This is a planetary “fever” that could last 100,000 years.

Even the Pentagon has not missed out on the speculative action, arguing in an apparently J.G. Ballard-inspired internal report from 2004 that mass rioting and nuclear war will be the inevitable outcome of climate change. With barely concealed relish, the Pentagon predicts that disruption, conflict, and warfare “would define human life.”

As if that were not bad enough, we then learn that the oceans may soon become “marine deserts” due to the extinction of phytoplankton and other “microscopic plants” at the base of the aquatic food chain. Creeping death, if I may be allowed to quote Metallica, seems to be all around us. But all is not gloom and apocalypse.

SOLAR DECATHLON

Last week, the National Mall in Washington, D.C. was host to a solar village constructed of the 18 entries in the 3rd annual U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon. Defending their title, the University of Colorado won the competition, prevailing in three of ten divisions. Judged on several requirements including architecture, energy balance, communication of ideas, and comfort, the projects produced exceptional case studies on the integration of renewable energy with practical building solutions.