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Photo of Puerto Rico's solar house on display at Solar Decathlon 2005 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Enlarge image

The solar house built by the Universidad de Puerto Rico for Solar Decathlon 2005 was disassembled in 2009 due to a lack of funding.
(Credit: Chris Gunn/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon)

Who: Universidad de Puerto Rico
What: La Casa Solar
Where:
No longer available

Solar Decathlon 2005

Universidad de Puerto Rico: Living on in Spirit

The Universidad de Puerto Rico returned to the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon in 2005 with a solar-powered house that had community at its heart. Following the competition, La Casa Solar returned to the Mayaguez campus for use as a meeting center for the university's engineering department.

In 2009, the house was disassembled due to a lack of funding. Many of its parts have been reused for other university projects; the other parts are in storage. The School of Engineering would like to rebuild the house again at some point. However, a significant source of funding is needed before this would be possible.

La Casa Solar finished in eleventh place at Solar Decathlon 2005. Throughout the competition, both the team and its house managed to bring warmth and hospitality representative of the Puerto Rican spirit to the National Mall.