Solar Decathalon

The future's so bright, we'll all have to wear shades.

The 2007 Solar Decathalon was held in Washington DC this month and the results were amazing. What is the Solar Decathalon, you say?

From the Solar Decathalon website:

The 2007 Solar Decathlon challenges 20 college teams from around the globe in 10 contests to design, build, and operate the most livable, energy-efficient completely solar-powered house. (Did you hear that? COMPLETELY Solar). Solar Decathlon houses must power all the home energy needs of a typical family using only the power of the sun. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends aesthetics and modern conveniences with maximum energy production and optimal efficiency. The first Solar Decathlon was held in 2002, and again in 2005, and the most recently in 2007.

The student teams spend almost two years designing and building their approximately 800-square-foot homes and preparing for the competition. During the 10-day competition in 2007, students test their homes in contests encompassing all the ways we use energy in our daily lives. Contests range from architecture, livability, and comfort to how well the homes perform tasks such as heating water and powering appliances. Each team must also provide enough solar electricity to power an electric car.

The competition places demands on their buildings' energy systems to maintain the house within a certain temperature range, to provide lighting and run appliances, to charge an electric car, and much more. The teams will generate that energy with photovoltaic (also called solar electric) systems to directly produce electricity and with solar thermal systems for space heating and cooling and water heating.

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is the primary sponsor of the Solar Decathlon. DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) sponsors and manages the event. The American Institute of Architects (AIA), the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), BP, and Sprint are title sponsors.

Here are a few examples:

The german team, which designed the house above right, won the competition this year. That may have to do with the fact that Germany is far more advanced in the world of solar energy. Here's a bit of information on the their project:

"Made in Germany" is a phrase that applies well to the Solar Decathlon entry from the Technische Universitat Darmstadt, because the team wants to present the German way of building, showcasing German technologies and materials in their solar house, including German oak.

The emphasis on "Made in Germany" products and technologies is apparent in the team's collaboration with German companies and manufacturers, such as Bosch, which provided three-month internships for two Darmstadt students. That arrangement provided a test bed for the students to study the performance of the systems that will provide hot water and climate control for the house.

"It was very interesting because we had all those experts right next to us, and when we had specific questions, we always got very good answers very quickly," says Toby Kern, an architecture student who was one of the interns.

After the Solar Decathlon, the house will return to Germany to be used as a solar power plant, as part of the university's project of a Solar Campus ("Solare Lichtwiese"), through which all buildings on campus will be equipped with building-integrated photovoltaics, feeding electricity into the German power grid.

Germany has a "solar feed-in tariff" that provides a guaranteed price for any solar power that is fed into the German power grid. Because the feed-in tariff is high enough to more than cover the cost of the installation over the long term, the university is selling shares to the public to finance these photovoltaic systems. This yields a return for the investors as the revenue from selling the power is split among them. The Solar Decathlon house will be the first piece in this ambitious project—continuing to showcase the potential of building-integrated solar power generation.

So, solar can be the answer? Maybe....

Dr. Alan Heeger, Nobel laureate and professor at the University of Santa Barbara, is developing a solar ink. Or, something like that. It's so astronomically above my head, I would not do justice to the description. But generally speaking - its a brilliant innovation. Completely different than the rigid, expensive, silicon panels we know today. His invention is malleable, mass-produceable, and potentially cost-effective.

He discovered a plastic. A plastic solar cell. He mixed a plastic with a carbon molecule and make a solar plastic.

The plastic can be printed, sprayed, and layered to respond to different types of light. Solar cells can be printed and rolled out on something like a printing press. He discovered solar power in an affordable plastic that can pick up very small amounts of light, even on rainy days. They don't have to be pointed directly at the sun. Small devices can be coated in this substance and will recharge themselves. He co-founded Konarka to put it into mass production.

Imagine leaving your cell phone on a sunlit table as it recharges itself.

Imagine painting your house in 'solar ink' which absorbs the sun and then selling the energy back to the grid.

Imaging roofing your building with a solar absorptive paint.

Dr. Heeger imagines they can get the price down to 10 cents per watt once it enters mass-production.

I imagine Dr. Heeger will be bathing in hundred dollar bills before long.

More power to him... if he can give more power to us.