Solar Decathlon and XPO Recap

Today marks the last day of the 2 week long 2013 Solar Decathlon competition at Irvine Great Park. If you didn't have a chance to check out this fantastic event, you're in the right place to learn more and get a taste of some of the ideas that the competitors put out there.

If you're short on time, this video gives a quick overview of what you missed:

The more detailed version:

The Solar Decathlon is a competition that challenges college teams from all around the world to build houses that are affordable, appealing to consumers, and optimally produce and conserve energy (within certain constraints.) The Irvine site (as opposed to the European or Chinese sites) hosted 20 teams this year.

Each team spent 2 years designing and building their houses. 3 weeks ago, the houses were dismantled, shipped to Irvine Great Park, and reassembled for the competition.

The teams competed in 10 areas (thus the name Solar Decathlon):

1. Architecture
Architectural elements such as holistic design, lighting, inspiration, and documentation

2. Market Appeal
Livability, marketability, and buildability based on the target client of each team's choosing

3. Engineering
Functionality, efficiency, innovation, reliability, and documentation

4. Communications
Web content, audiovisual presentation, etc

5. Affordability

6. Comfort Zone
Temperature and humidity ranges

7. Hot Water
Must supply all the heated water for daily needs, including showering and laundry

8. Appliances
Must mimic actual appliance use in a real house

9. Home Entertainment
Includes holding two dinners parties and a movie night for 6 "neighboring" competitors, who act as jurors by awarding points based on ambiance, meal quality, and overall experience.

10. Energy Balance
Must produce more energy than they consume

Each team could earn up to 100 points per category. There was a winner for each category as well as for the overall competition.

The Teams at a Glance:

For more details, please visit their pages and read more!

1. Arizona State University and University of New Mexico
823/1000 points 
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_asu_unm.html
Team website: http://www.asunm.org/

2. Czech Republic: Czech Technical University 
945 /1000 points | 1st place in architecture | 3rd Overall
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_czech_republic.html
Team website: http://www.airhouse.cz/

3. Kentucky/Indiana: University of Louisville, Ball State University, and University of Kentucky
850/1000 points
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_kentucky_indiana.html
Team website: http://sd2013.teamkentuckiana.org/

4. Middlebury College (Vermont)
920/1000 points | Tied for 1st place in Hot Water
This is a liberal arts college!
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_middlebury.html
Team website: http://sd13.middlebury.edu/

5. Missouri University of Science and Technology
840/1000 points
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_missouri.html
Team website: http://solarhouse.mst.edu/

6. Norwich (VT)
876/1000 points | Tied for 1st in Affordability
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_norwich.html
Team website: http://nusd2013.org/

7. Santa Clara University
888/1000 points | 1st in Home Entertainment and Comfort Zone
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_santa_clara.html
Team website: http://www.scuradianthouse.org/

8. Southern California Institute of Architecture and California Institute of Technology
868/1000 points 
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_sci_arc_caltech.html
Team website: http://scical2013.com/

9. Stanford University
933/1000 points | Tied for 1st for Affordability | 5th Overall
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_stanford.html
Team website: http://solardecathlon.stanford.edu/

10. Stevens Institute of Technology
939/1000 points | Tied for 1st in Hot Water, 2nd in Architecture | 4th Overall
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_stevens.html
Team website: http://www.stevens.edu/sd2013/

11. Team Alberta: University of Calgary
913/1000 points | Ranked 1st in appliances
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_alberta.html
Team website: http://www.solardecathlon.ca/

12. Team Austria: Vienna University of Technology
951/1000 points | Ranked 2nd in Market Appeal, Tied for 1st in Hot Water, 1st in Communications | Ranked #1 Overall
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_austria.html
Team website: http://www.solardecathlon.at/

13. Team Capital DC: The Catholic University of America, George Washington University, and American University
920/1000 points | Ranked 2nd for Comfort Zone and Home Entertainment
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_capitol_dc.html
Team website: http://www.teamcapitoldc.org/

14. Team Ontario: Queen's University, Carleton University, and Algonquin College
926/1000 points | Ranked 2nd in Affordability & 1st in Engineering, tied for 1st in Hot Water
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_ontario.html
Team website: http://ontariosd.ca/

15. Team Texas: University of Texas at El Paso and El Paso Community College
776/1000 points
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_texas.html
Team website: http://engineering.utep.edu/

16. Tidewater Virginia: Hampton University and Old Dominion University
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_tidewater_virginia.html
Team website: http://www.canopyhouse.org/

17. University of Nevada Las Vegas
947/1000 points | 2nd in Communications, 1st in Market Appeal, tied for 1st in Hot Water | 2nd Overall
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_lasvegas.html
Team website: http://solardecathlon.unlv.edu/

18. University of North Carolina at Charlotte
870/1000 points
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_north_carolina.html
Team website: http://urbaneden.uncc.edu/

19. University of Southern California
906/1000 points | 1st in Appliances
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_southern_california.html
Team website: http://solardecathlon.usc.edu/

20. West Virginia University
774/1000 points
DOE page: http://www.solardecathlon.gov/team_west_virginia.html
Team website: http://solar.wvu.edu/

Be sure to check out http://www.solardecathlon.gov for a full breakdown of every aspect of the competition and the teams including more videos and photos!

You can also check out photos taken at the event by visiting Soka students here.

If you'd like to learn more about sustainable housing, you might like to look into Earth Ships. Last year's Spring Eco Wing won the SSU grant to attend an Earthship workshop in LA, and so they have collected a few resources on the subject, including a full length documentary available for free on youtube. There's also more information at the official Earthship Biotecture website.

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There was also a green innovation XPO simultaneously happening at Great Park. For obvious reasons, we spent more time exploring the houses, but we did take a few minutes to check out a few of the booths on things like aquaculture gray water filtration for gardens and 3D printing biodegradable plastic forms.

This last one in particular is worth mentioning because it's really cool, potentially scary for some people, and ACTUALLY UNDER WAY RIGHT NOW:

Welcome to the future. What are you going to contribute to it?