Archive for October, 2013

The first-ever Housing Innovation Awards were presented in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2013 and XPO today in Irvine, California, and focused on four building categories: DOE Challenge Home Builders,  Home Performance with ENERGY STAR Participating Contractors, Excellence in Building Science Educator of the Year, and Building America Top Innovations. The Housing Innovation Awards recognize a diverse group of industry leaders who are helping communities across the country save money and energy and are leading the way to affordable, comfortable zero net-energy ready homes. The Housing Innovation Awards support the Energy Department’s commitment to help harness American ingenuity to commercialize and deploy cutting-edge technologies, as well as to promote improving the energy efficiency of the U.S. housing stock.

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With a snip of giant scissors, a ribbon holding back throngs of student decathletes, sponsors, officials, and other well-wishers fell aside, and the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2013 officially opened.

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Visiting the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2013 is all about touring solar-powered houses designed, built, and operated by collegiate teams from four countries.

Or is it?

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If you have to solve a problem, it’s generally true that two heads are better than one. But imagine having 2,000.

The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon challenges 20 university teams to design and build the best house that’s ever been built—a modern, fully sustainable house that can produce all its own energy. That’s a huge challenge, and it takes motivated students and faculty to do it. The universities recruit 40 to 100 students and faculty to form a team, and in some cases, teams total more than 100 members. That’s a lot of brain power! Now consider that 19 other universities are doing the same thing, and the brain power is multiplied even more. During the past two years, some 2,000 students and faculty have been working hard to design and build the best houses they can.

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Despite the government shutdown, the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2013 competition will continue as planned.

The Solar Decathlon is funded by a mix of last year’s federal funding and at least 30 private-sector sponsors. Student teams from across the country and around the world have worked for two years to design and build their solar-powered, energy-efficient houses and have been working onsite for the past week to prepare for this highly-anticipated event. Federal employee participation is limited to personnel necessary to allow the show to proceed.

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