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11.09
U.S.
Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon
Highlights Tomorrow's Engineers & Entrepreneurs
By Terrance Malkinson
For three weeks in October, the
U.S. Department
of Energy hosted the fourth biennial
Solar
Decathlon competition. More than 100,000
visitors toured the "solar village" located on
the National Mall in Washington, D.C., 8-21 October. The next competition will be
held in 2011.
Post-secondary educational
institutions, including colleges and universities
from around the world, submitted proposals to be
considered for entry into the competition.
Proposals were reviewed, scored, ranked and
selected for entry by a proposal review
committee consisting of engineers, scientists
and experts from the U.S. Department of Energy
and its National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Successful student teams then
spent almost two years designing and building
their approximately 800-square-foot homes, powered
exclusively from the sun using off-the-shelf
technology. The homes, which encompass all the ways that
we use energy in our daily lives, were
then transported to the National Mall for final
assembly, evaluation and display to the public.
Following the competition homes might be sold,
placed on display, or used for research.
This year, 20 teams — composed
of bright, young future engineers, architects, scientists and
entrepreneurs — competed to design, build and
operate the most attractive and effective
solar-powered home. The goal was to create a zero energy home — producing as much renewable
source energy as it consumes. Teams included:
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University of Arizona
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Cornell University
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University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
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Iowa State University
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University of Kentucky
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University of Minnesota
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Ohio State University
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Penn State
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Universidad de Puerto Rico
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Rice University
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Team Alberta: University of
Calgary, SAIT Polytechnic, Alberta College
of Art and Design, Mount Royal College
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Team Boston: Boston
Architectural College, Tufts University
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Team California: Santa Clara
University, California College of the Arts
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Team Germany: Technische
Universität Darmstadt
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Team Missouri: Missouri
University of Science and Technology,
University of Missouri
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Team Ontario: University of
Waterloo, Ryerson University, Simon Fraser
University
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Team Spain:
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
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University of Louisiana at
Lafayette
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Virginia Tech
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University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee
The Solar Decathlon itself has
six major objectives:
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To educate student participants about the benefits of energy
efficiency, renewable energy and green building technologies — information of
value to their future career and to society.
-
To raise awareness among the general public about renewable solar energy and
energy efficiency.
-
To encourage research and development of efficient energy utilization
and production.
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To
promote multidisciplinary collaboration among students.
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To promote an integrated approach to new construction that considers the
interactions of all building components and systems.
-
To demonstrate to the public the potential of energy efficient
homes which produce as much renewable source energy as they consume.
Homes were required to:
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Be attractive and easy to live
in
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Maintain comfortable and
healthy indoor environmental conditions
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Feature appealing and adequate
lighting
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Supply energy to household
appliances for cooking and cleaning
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Power home electronics
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Provide hot water
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Balance energy production and
consumption
This year contestants were
evaluated on:
 The university team from Germany
(Technische Universität Darmstadt) won
the U.S. Energy Department's Solar Decathlon for
the second consecutive time. In second place was
Team Illinois, and third place went to Team
California. Judges felt that Team Germany's
competitive advantage was the amount of energy
their house put back into the power grid.
Team Germany's home (pictured at
right), designed as a two-story cube, featured
an exterior
covered with solar cells — an 11.1-kW
photovoltaic system made of 40 single-crystal
silicon panels on the roof and about 250
thin-film copper indium gallium diselenide
(CIGS) panels on the sides that produced 200
percent of
the energy needed by the house.
More photographs, virtual tours,
videos, time-lapse photographs and multimedia
are available on the
DOE Solar Decathlon Web
site.
Terrance
Malkinson is a communications specialist,
business analyst and futurist. He is Vice-Chair
of the IEEE-USA Communications Committee, an
international correspondent for IEEE-USA
Today's Engineer Online, editor-in-chief of
IEEE-USA Today's Engineer Digest, and
associate editor for IEEE Canadian Review.
He was an elected Senator of the University of
Calgary and an elected Governor of the IEEE
Engineering Management Society as well as an
elected Administrative Committee member of the
IEEE Professional Communication Society. He has
been the editor of several IEEE conference
proceedings, and past editor of IEEE
Engineering Management. He is the author of
more than 360 publications, and is an
accomplished triathlete. His career path
includes being an accomplished technical
supervisor and medical researcher at the
University of Calgary a business proposal
manager for the General Electric Company, and an
associate for Sears Canada Inc. Currently, he is
with the School of Health and Public
Safety/Applied Research and Innovation Services
at SAIT Polytechnic in Calgary Canada.
The author is
grateful to the professional support of the
Haskayne School of Business Library at the
University of Calgary. He can be reached at
todaysengineer@ieee.org.
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