Solar homes go for high-tech and practicality

The Solar Decathlon pits some of the best collegiate minds in the world against one another to produce high-tech eco homes for as little as $80,000. The end result is innovation that will help develop the next generation of solar homes that are both energy efficient and affordable.

green team

Solar homes go for high-tech and practicality
CNET
by Martin LaMonica

If you designed a net zero-energy home, would it be a science experiment or something you’d move into as soon as it was done?

At this year’s Solar Decathlon student competition, both approaches were on display: high-tech homes that cost well over $700,000 and simpler ones that could be made for as little as $80,000.

The contest pits 20 colleges against each other to build the best house powered only by solar energy. Student teams assemble their creations on the National Mall here where they are judged in 10 contests–a decathlon–and viewed by the public starting on Friday.

Student competitors said the whole point was to show what’s possible with existing solar and energy-efficiencyproducts, either from established providers or green-building start-ups. And a look at these 800-square-foot structures shows you the huge variety of possibilities in net zero-energy buildings.

Teams Germany, Spain, and Ontario/BC built sophisticated and relatively expensive homes that used a number of innovative techniques, such as solar cells built into the homes’ siding and high-tech heat sinks using “phase-change materials” that retain heat or cold to lower energy use.

Santa Clara University, which came in third in the 2007 competition, teamed up with California College of the Arts, to focus on changing the image of a green home.

“The big idea is that living green is not a compromise. You can have all the amenities of a modern house–you don’t need to give up you high-definition TV,” said Richard Navarro, an electrical engineering student at Santa Clara University. “If you go into this house, you wouldn’t believe that it’s just 800 square feet. It feels much bigger.”

Many students said they designed buildings that they wanted to see back home. Penn State, for example, used solar collectors that work well with diffuse light and are well suited for their climate. Rice University’s Zerow house will be installed as a low-income in Houston and Iowa State designed a home for seniors. The team from the University of Arizona, too, set out to build the “home of the future” tailored for their native state.

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