Posts Tagged ‘Awards’

By Stacy Hunt

In late September, I found myself in a futuristic eco-village outside of Ben Guerir, Morocco, six time zones away from home. As a juror for the Communications and Social Awareness Contest in the first-ever Solar Decathlon Africa, I had some tough decisions ahead of me.

This wasn’t my first rodeo. I was a juror for Solar Decathlon Europe in Szentendre, Hungary; I’ve attended several U.S. competitions, and I have worked with the U.S. organizing team since 2013.

But as soon as I stepped onto the site, Solar Decathlon Africa felt different. The energy of the students, and their region-, craft-, and culture-specific solutions were somehow more robust than what I’ve seen on the whole in other Solar Decathlons.

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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is excited to announce the prize amounts for the Solar Decathlon 2020 Build Challenge. Solar Decathlon Build Challenge teams work during a two-year period to design and build complete houses that incorporate state-of-the-art energy and building design practices and technologies. DOE will select up to 12 finalist teams across the Local Build and National Showcase Divisions. All finalist teams that meet Solar Decathlon Build Challenge requirements will receive prize funds to assist in defraying their costs. Funds will be provided at various points during the two-year period pending completion of specific deliverables and requirements.

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This article was originally published on the blog of Aurora Solar, a solar design and sales software company.

By Andrew Gong

Two weeks ago, during the Solar Decathlon 2017 competition, we explored the solar powered house designs from participating university teams. The designs showcased many creative and resourceful design strategies—and presented a fun challenge for modeling in Aurora.

With the competition now complete, today’s post takes a closer look at the top three teams to identify some of the solar design lessons from their success.

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Prestigious Energy Competition Open for Final Weekend

DENVER, CO – Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Daniel Simmons today announced the winning team of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Decathlon 2017 in Denver, Colorado. The Swiss Team took first place overall by designing, building, and operating the house that best blended smart energy production with innovation, market potential, and energy and water efficiency. The University of Maryland took second place followed by the University of California, Berkeley and University of Denver team in third place.

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Stevens Institute of Technology won top honors overall at the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2015 by designing, building, and operating the most cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive solar powered house.

University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, took second place followed by California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, in third place. (more…)

At the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2015, Stevens Institute of Technology holds the lead after placing first in Market Appeal, Architecture, and Communications.

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Congratulations to Team Rhome from Universitá Degli Studi di Roma TRE, the winner of Solar Decathlon Europe 2014! The team’s Rhome for Dencity house received first place overall in the final award ceremony of the competition Saturday evening in Versailles, France.

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The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2013 won first place in the special events category in the National Association of Government Communicators (NAGC) Blue Pencil and Gold Screen Awards Competition. The award was announced last week during a reception and banquet at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

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The Norwich University Solar Decathlon 2013 team received the Byron Stafford Award of Distinction at the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2013 Victory Reception on Oct. 12.Presented by Solar Decathlon Director Richard King’s wife, Melissa, the award is a tribute to Byron Stafford, who served as the event’s site operations manager from the first Solar Decathlon in 2002 until his death in May. A National Renewable Energy Laboratory senior scientist, Stafford was instrumental in formulating the competition rules and was dedicated to ensuring a safe competition and public exhibit. In 2009, his team installed the first Solar Decathlon village microgrid to distribute energy safely and reliably among the competition houses and to the utility grid.

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The people have spoken. Today, UrbanEden, the solar-powered house from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, won the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2013 People’s Choice Award.

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At an awards ceremony this morning, winners of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2013 Affordability and Market Appeal contests took center stage by demonstrating that innovative, energy-efficient houses can be cost-effective and appealing to a variety of target markets.

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Solar Decathlon Europe organizers accept the Sustainable Energy Europe Award for Communicating. (Courtesy of the European Union Sustainable Energy Week)

Solar Decathlon Europe was honored last week by the European Commission with a Sustainable Energy Europe Award in the Communicating category. The annual awards reward best-in-class initiatives that promote renewable energy and energy efficiency in the European Union. More than 300 initiatives were considered in this year’s competition.

The Communicating category recognizes projects “that create awareness about … energy challenges, that change perceptions, and that bring about endorsement of energy efficiency and/or renewable energy.”

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The Solar Decathlon teams have been nominated for a TreeHugger’s  Readers’ Choice Award—and they need your vote to win.

TreeHugger, part of Discovery’s Planet Green initiative, is asking its readers to vote for “the people, ideas, projects, and memes that are pushing green into the mainstream” as part of its Readers’ Choice Awards Best of Green 2011. The Solar Decathlon teams have been nominated as a group in the Design and Architecture category.

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Virginia Tech took top honors to a standing ovation at the Solar Decathlon Europe awards ceremony today in Madrid, Spain. The decathletes were ecstatic to finally win after participating in four Solar Decathlons. And this was the closest margin of victory in a Solar Decathlon. Virginia Tech won by less than a point! (more…)

On May 11, the National Building Museum presented the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon with a 2010 Honor Award, which recognizes individuals and organizations for making significant contributions to our nation’s building heritage through unique social and civic innovations.

The Solar Decathlon was honored for its commitment to educating the next generation of engineers, architects, and builders through a creative “whole-building approach” with renewable energy, energy-efficient, and environmentally responsible systems. (more…)