U’s Solar Decathlon team places fifth in international competition

[greencat]

The goal was to build and operate an energy efficient house using solar power.
Published: 10/18/2009
By Frank Bi
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The product of two years of hard work was on display on the National Mall this past week as the University of Minnesota’s Solar Decathlon team placed fifth overall in the United States Department of Energy’s biennial Solar Decathlon competition.

This was the first year the University has participated in the competition and only the fourth time the Department of Energy has held the international competition.

The 20 teams chosen to compete were asked to build and operate an energy-efficient, solar-powered home. Teams came from all over the world to compete and a school from Germany won the overall competition.

The University’s solar house, called “ICON,” won first place in two of the competition’s 10 individual categories; engineering and lighting design.

The judges were particularly impressed with the home’s stringent energy budget — it took only 500 watts, the equivalent of five 100 watt bulbs, to power the lighting in the entire home, faculty project manager Ann Johnson said.

“The ‘U’ really proved itself in these categories,” Johnson said.

The large windows in the home bring natural lighting into the fully furnished home, which was made with mostly reclaimed wood and other low impact materials.

The team had been constantly working since arriving in Washington D.C. on Sept. 30.

“We’ve had no time for fun,” Johnson said.

The first week consisted of reassembling the house and getting it approved for occupancy. This was followed by another week of judging for individual contests and hours of public tours.

Thousands of spectators a day walked through the home, many wondering which house on display could be the house of the future.

“It may not be this exact house,” graduate student and project manager Shengyin Xu said.

With a gabled roof reminiscent of a classic American family home, Xu said she believes that someday houses like these will be economically practical.

The ICON Solar House , with a retail value of around $500,000 including labor costs, will be disassembled early this week so it can be brought back to Minnesota.

Future plans for the house are still murky, but the team would like to display it somewhere on campus or have it be used as actual housing for visiting professors, if University deans and President Bob Bruininks approve.

Whenever anyone has worked on a single project for as long as Xu and her team members have, it becomes difficult to part ways, she said.

“It’s going to be hard not to work on the project,” Xu said, but added that the demanding life of a college student will quickly bring some of the team members back to a familiar place.

“Some of us need to catch up on our studies,” Xu said, who has a thesis to write.

As for the future of the University’s Solar Decathlon team, they are headed back to the drawing board as they turn their attention to the 2011 Solar Decathlon.

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