WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Energy has selected 20 university teams to compete in the 2007 Solar Decathlon. The teams selected for the competition will be awarded $100,000 over two years to support the Solar Decathlon's research goal of reducing the cost of solar-powered homes and advancing solar technology.
"Supplying enough clean, affordable energy to fuel the world's growing economies is one of the great challenges we will face over the coming years," Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said. "By helping expand the use of solar energy technologies, the participants will help meet that challenge."
The Solar Decathlon takes place every other year. The following teams have been selected to compete through a proposal system:
- California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo;
- Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh;
- Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.;
- Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta;
- Kansas State University, Manhattan;
- Lawrence Technological University, Southfield, Mich.;
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge;
- New York Institute of Technology, Old Westbury;
- Team Montreal (École de Tech-nologie Supérieure, Université de Montréal, McGill University), Montreal;
- Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany;
- Texas A&M University, College Station;
- Pennsylvania State University, University Park;
- Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras and Mayagüez;
- Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain;
- University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati;
- University of Colorado, Boulder (winner of the 2005 Solar Decathlon);
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign;
- University of Maryland, College Park;
- University of Missouri-Rolla; and
- University of Texas at Austin;
In the Solar Decathlon, student teams compete in designing, building and operating highly energy-efficient, completely solar-powered houses. The teams will assemble their homes on the National Mall in Washington and will be open to the public. Contest rules require that each house generate enough energy from the sun to operate a household, a home-based business and related transportation needs.
Teams are judged in 10 different categories, seven of which focus on energy efficiency. Others include design and comfort of the house. The team with the most points wins.
More information is available on the Web at www.solardecathlon.org