2009 Solar Decathlon winners announced
Tucson Green Times – October 2009
Washington DC - Twenty teams, including the University of Arizona, have been competing this month in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2009, which takes place on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
The Solar Decathlon is an international collegiate competition in which student teams compete to design, build, and operate highly energy-efficient, completely solar-powered houses. For the 2009 event, teams 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.
U.S. Department of Energy Deputy Secretary Daniel Poneman announced the winners of the 2009 Department of Energy Solar Competition on Oct. 16. Team Germany, the student team from Darmstadt, Germany, won top honors by designing, building, and operating the most attractive and efficient solar-powered home. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign took second place followed by Team California in third place.
The active competition lasted for a week, with the prototype home designs open to the public through Sunday. Team Germany’s winning “Cube House” design produced a surplus of power even during three days of rain.
Even though our Arizona team did not place in the top three, they deserve kudos for designing a great house. One of the signature features of the UA Decathlon house is a water-filled Trombe wall that forms a solar thermal collector.
Sowing the Seeds of Solar. The team nurtured a vision for an energy-efficient solar house based on living with nature within the home and in developed exterior spaces. The team hopes that, beyond the competition, its Solar Energy-Efficient Dwelling, or SEED [pod], can be manufactured as a self-contained module. The house was designed with an adjustable roof angle to accommodate different solar orientations around the world.
The Team included faculty, staff, and students from the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, the Arizona Research Institute for Solar Energy, the Controlled Environment Agriculture Center, and the colleges of Journalism and Visual Communications.
The House. To conserve water, a precious resource in Arizona and many parts of the world, the SEED [pod] features a grey water filter that produces potable water for its greenhouse. Rainwater is also collected and stored in tanks for use in the greenhouse and for landscaping. Vegetation will shade the south wall during the hottest time of the year and can be cut back during winter. The large outdoor deck is made of a permeable material that allows water to run through it to the ground below.
The Technology. Passive strategies in the UA house include natural ventilation, efficient volume management, strategic insulation placement, and shading strategies. To reduce heating and cooling needs, the team designed a vacuum-formed clear plastic water wall to fit within the south wall. The wall acts as a “heat sink” by deterring heat from entering the house during the day and releasing it slowly after the sun goes down.
The house uses innovative bifacial photovoltaic panels that allow 15 percent of daylight to pass through them. Used in applications such as carports and shade areas, these panels can collect electricity on both sides. A cavity underneath allows for ventilation. These panels can be up to 30 percent more efficient than single-sided panels.
Over the past two weeks, the 2009 Solar Decathlon challenged 20 university-led teams from the U.S. and other countries to compete in 10 contests, ranging from subjective elements such as architecture, market viability, communications, lighting design, and engineering, to technical measurements of how well the homes provided energy for space heating and cooling, hot water, home entertainment, appliances, and net metering.
New to this year’s competition, the Net Metering Contest was worth 150 points towards the final results and was the most heavily weighted contest. It challenged teams to generate surplus energy, above and beyond the power needed to run a house, which they fed into a power grid.
Team Germany earned 908.29 points out of a possible 1,000 to win the competition, followed by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with 897.30 points, and third-place Team California with 863.08 points. The UA team ranked 18 out of 20 teams, earning 610.34 points.
For more information visit online: www.solardecathlon.org
