Solar Decathlon 2007

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Spreading Innovative Ideas

After leaving the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2007, the University of Illinois team headed straight to Chicago with Elementhouse. The house was reconstructed after the competition for the annual U.S. Green Building Council's Greenbuild Conference at the Chicago Center for Green Technology, where it remains on display.

Plans for the house to return to campus are on hold while funding and siting issues are resolved by the university. In the meantime, Elementhouse is being used for public educational tours at the Chicago Center for Green Technology, which was the first retrofitted municipal building in the nation to receive the LEED Platinum rating.

The University of Illinois team earned first place in both the Market Viability and Comfort Zone contests at Solar Decathlon 2007. Elementhouse introduced several new technologies, such as an automated system that controls temperature and humidity levels inside the house, that impressed competition jurors.

"A lot of ideas that the army of students in the Solar Decathlon have developed provide great resource material for folks," says Ty Newell, an emeritus professor in mechanical science and engineering and one of the faculty advisors for the Illinois team. In fact, he used many of his team's ideas, and even some technologies employed by other teams, while building a solar-powered house called Equinox for his own private residence.

Content Last Updated: September 14, 2010