Solar Decathlon 2005: The Event in Review

摘要

In the fall of 2005, 18 teams from colleges and universities across the United States, including Puerto Rico, and from Canada and Spain, assembled in Washington, D.C., for the second Solar Decathlon. The Solar Decathlon is a collegiate competition that demonstrates energy-efficient and solar technologies that meet todays residential energy demands. The United States Department of Energy (DOE), its National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and private-sector partners BP, Sprint Nextel, and DIY Network sponsored the competition. Teams were required to design and build small, energy-efficient, completely solar-powered houses and to compete side-by-side in 10 contests. The energy source for each house was limited to the solar energy incident on the house during the competition. The 2005 event took place from October 6-16, 2005, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The Mall was again selected for this event because it is a national stage, but it necessitated the transport of each solar home from its campus to and from Washington, D.C., at considerable expense. Regulations that were designed to protect the National Mall limited building size and height, mandated handicapped accessibility, prohibited exca-vation, and limited the entire event (arrival, assembly, competition, disassembly, and departure) to 21 days.