This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic newsletter.
January 10, 2006
DOE Selects 20 Teams for the 2007 Solar Decathlon
DOE announced on January 10th its selection of 20 teams for the 2007 Solar Decathlon, a competition to design and build energy-efficient solar homes. DOE selected the teams based on their submitted proposals, and DOE will award each team $100,000 over the next two years. Sixteen of the teams hail from 13 states—California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas—and the remaining four teams are located in Puerto Rico, Canada, Germany, and Spain. This will be the first time that a team from Germany has participated in the competition. For the full list of teams, see the DOE press release.
The Solar Decathlon is an international competition that brings student teams from universities across the United States, Europe, and Canada to compete in designing, building, and operating highly energy-efficient, completely solar-powered houses. In the fall of 2007, the teams will transport their homes to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and assemble them there. Contest rules require that each house generate enough energy from the sun to operate a household, a home-based business, and related transportation needs. Each team is judged in ten different categories, six of which focus on the house's ability to provide utility and comfort with a limited supply of solar energy; others relate to communications and the design of the house. To learn more, watch the DIY Network's one-hour special on the 2005 Solar Decathlon, which airs on January 29th and 30th. See the Solar Decathlon and DIY Network Web sites.
