THE SOLAR FUTURE

One of the keys to the success of the winning entry was that it looked less like a solar house than like a home. See also: FUTURE HOMES ARE SOLAR HOMES

Little Samples of Solar’s Future
Elizabeth Razzi, October 28, 2007 (Washington Post)

WHO
US Department of Energy (DOE), 20 universities from across the US and Europe.

Texas A&M's house had a wind turbine to supplement its solar power. (click to enlarge)

WHAT
Solar Decathlon 2007, sponsored by DOE, is a biannual competition between university teams to build the most energy efficient living space run entirely on solar power. The purpose of the competition is to generate new technology that will bring sustainable, energy-efficient and solar technologies to market sooner.

WHEN
The event ran from October 19 through the 26th. An every-two-years competition, the Decathlon was last held in 2005 and next scheduled for 2009.

WHERE
- The entrants built their houses on the Mall at the heart of the US capital city.
- Germany's Technische Universitat Darmstadt won.
- Entries described in this piece: Technische Universitat Darmstadt, University of Maryland, Georgia Tech, Penn State University

The winning entry from Germany's Technische Universitat Darmstadt had lots of computer-operated shuttered solar windows. (click to enlarge)

WHY
- 20 university teams, 20 prototype solar-powered houses.
- Materials and construction for the German house: $733,444 ($917/square foot). Materials and construction for the Univ of Maryland house: $448,470 ($561/square foot)
- Size restrictions for entries: 800 square feet. Usually 1 bedroom, 1 bath, little storage.
- Interiors were aesthetically pleasing and space was innovatively conserved.
- Do solar shutters (often computer-operated) on many entries suggest the start of a design trend?

Every entry had to have enough solar energy to operate and charge an electric car. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- The Post’s Razzi on the winning entry: “…a stunner, in no small part because it didn't look like a solar house. There were no impossible-to-ignore shiny solar panels attached to the roof, no appendages jutting into the sky. This house was stealthily solar, without ducts or mechanical structures announcing its techno-geek heart…The flat-roofed, rectangular house looked like a fine piece of furniture, with the exterior clad completely in fine-grained German oak. Solar panels were integrated into the slats of floor-to-ceiling wooden shutters on the east, south and west sides of the house. On the north side, in the sun's shadow, the shutters lacked solar panels. A computer could change the tilt of the slats to catch the sun's rays and generate electricity throughout the day, storing as much as possible for use at night…”
- Tony Callahan, VP, Beazer Homes USA (who contributed to the Georgia Tech entry): “[Solar and sustainable tech are] getting more streamlined to where it's more aesthetically pleasing from a curb appeal standpoint…As more adopt the technology, the price will come down to where it will be mainstream…You can have a 3,000-square-foot house that is solar…but I think homes are going to get smaller from a green standpoint."
- Razzi’s conclusion: “…New homes could use more of these affordable, human-sensitive design features now, while we wait for solar technologies to become more versatile and affordable.”