The Solar Decathlon

October 11th, 2007

I don’t usually post many of these articles, but this one is pretty interesting to me. Every other year the U.S. Department of Energy and various sponsors put on what is called a Solar Decathlon. This year it is sponsored by an energy leader in BP, so it is being called the BP Solar Decathlon.

What this contest does is put together 20 university teams from around the world to design, build and operate livable, energy-efficient, and completely solar-powered houses. The event culminates in a week-long competition on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

You can read about this Solar Decathlon on a blog created by BP that has posts done by the groups that are participating in the contest at the Solar Decathlon Blog. The blog breaks down each of the 20 teams in the contest and gives some background about each of them. The contest start in 1 Day so regular updates will be made as the contest goes on. There are a couple of podcasts about the event as well from some of the sponsors.

Even though this event is sponsored by an energy company in BP, the blog links to a bunch of pretty good energy information that may be of interest to anyone who likes to keep up on it. A few scattered articles about hybrids are on there. Links to alternative energy studies and resources, as well in depth looks into solar paneling. You can get involved in discussions about alternative energy at the blog, or one of the many links to the alternative energy sites provided there.