Posts Tagged ‘Competition’

Yesterday’s Solar Decathlon China opening ceremony was grand!

A huge stage, complete with three video screens, was set up on the steps of the Sun Palace. The mayor of Datong opened Friday’s opening ceremony by speaking about the future—a cleaner, brighter future, thanks to the efforts of students and faculty participating in Solar Decathlon China. Other dignitaries, including Assistant Secretary David Danielson of the U.S. Department of Energy, also spoke. Dr. Danielson said how pleased he was to be in Datong witnessing the first Solar Decathlon in China. He congratulated everyone for making the competition possible.

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I just arrived at the first Solar Decathlon China in Datong, and it is beyond awesome.  Solar Decathlon started in the United States, spread to Europe, and is now in Asia. Each time it moved, our international friends and colleagues took a good idea and made it better.

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Appalachian State University won the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011 People’s Choice Award for its Solar Homestead today. This award gives the public the opportunity to vote for its favorite house. This year, 92,538 votes were cast. The award was announced at a Victory Reception in the solar Village in West Potomac Park—the last official event of Solar Decathlon 2011.

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Consistently appearing in first place in overall standings throughout the competition, the University of Maryland won the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced the competition results today before an excited audience that packed the main tent in the solar village.

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With exemplary communications materials, public tours, and website, Middlebury College received first place in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon Communications Contest today.

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U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon organizers have corrected the Affordability Contest results after discovering a minor error in the scoring spreadsheet calculations.

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Wowing jurors with its attention to detail, craftsmanship, and unusual energy visualization system, New Zealand (Victoria University of Wellington) received first place today in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011 Engineering Contest for its First Light house.

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How do you identify the measured contest captain on each U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon team? Listen for words such as datalogger, monitored performance subcontest, and database-driven scoring application.

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Before a packed auditorium today at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, the University of Maryland took first place in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon Architecture Contest.

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It may seem like all work all the time for the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon’s student decathletes, but one contest brings teams together to earn points while relaxing and interacting with one another.

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Note: Corrections to the Affordability Contest results were announced Sept. 30, 2011.

Proving that the cost of “going green” is decreasing, two teams tied for first place in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011 Affordability Contest. Parsons The New School for Design and Stevens Institute of Technology (which includes Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy at The New School) built Empowerhouse for less than $230,000. Purdue University’s INhome came in at just less than $250,000. These teams earned 100 points for achieving a target construction cost of $250,000 or less, as evaluated by a professional cost estimator.

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The big buzz word in Washington, D.C., these days is budget. In the solar village at West Potomac Park, cost savings are top of mind for the decathletes as well.

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We are four days into the competition, and the standings are extremely close. Normally, we would begin to see some separation, but the first- and second-place teams are just a point apart, and the total separation from top to bottom is only 20 points out of 1000. If this was a horse race, we’d need a speed camera to tell who is in the lead!

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The typical college student does about two loads of laundry a week. However, the student decathletes must go above and beyond this amount to earn full points for the Appliances Contest. In this contest, teams prove that their houses are not just energy-efficient but also fully functional.

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One of the 10 contests in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011, Energy Balance measures the net energy each house produces or consumes over the course of the competition.

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