Team FIU in D.C. for Solar Decathlon 2011

After two years of planning and prep work, showtime arrives next week for the 20 teams participating in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Solar Decathlon 2011. The event runs from Sept. 23-Oct. 2 at the National Mall, West Potomac Park, in Washington, D.C.

The contest challenges collegiate teams to design, build and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency. For a comprehensive look at Team FIU’s entry in the competition, PerFORM[D]ance House, visit DOE’s team page on our Panthers.

Project engineer Michele Markovits and other team members work on the foundation footings for their house. Photo courtesy Carol Anna/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon.

The competing teams bring their houses–literally, the whole house–to Washington, D.C. where they are open to the public for several days as well as to judges. (Team FIU was mentioned in DOE’s news blog for Thursday, Sept. 14, which was the second full day of construction. Check out the post that mentions our Panthers by clicking here.) Each team’s home is judged in 10 different categories, including architecture, comfort, affordability, market appeal, and energy balance. The team with the highest points in a category wins in that discipline, while the team with the highest cumulative point total wins the Decathlon.

The competition is a two-year event, broken up into planning (first year) and execution (second year). This year’s Decathlon will pit teams from five countries and four continents against one another. The contestants are: Appalachian State University; FIU; Middlebury College; The New School and Stevens Institute of Technology; The Ohio State University; Purdue University; The Southern California Institute of Architecture and California Institute of Technology; Team Florida — Florida State University, The University of Central Florida, The University of Florida, and The University of South Florida; Team Massachusetts — Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell; Team New Jersey — Rutgers – The State University of New Jersey and New Jersey Institute of Technology; Team New York — The City College of New York; Tidewater Virginia — Old Dominion University and Hampton University; University of Hawaii; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; University of Maryland; The University of Tennessee; New Zealand — Victoria University of Wellington; Team Canada — University of Calgary; Team China — Tongji University; and Team Belgium — Ghent University.

FIU last competed in the Solar Decathlon in 2005 with the “Engawa” house and won first place in the Energy Balance Competition.

At the completion of the competition, PerFORM[D]ance House will come back to Modesto A. Maidique Campus, where it will become the permanent home of the university’s Office of Sustainability.

This year’s team received a warm welcome to D.C. from the local alumni chapter, which welcomed them at a reception.