Virginia Tech team places fourth at Solar Decathlon 2005
A house designed and built by a team of students from Virginia Tech’s College of Architecture and Urban Studies and College of Engineering placed fourth overall on Friday, Oct. 14, at Solar Decathlon 2005, an international competition sponsored by the Department of Energy held on the Mall in Washington, D.C.
The team also won first place category awards for “Best Architecture,” “Best Dwelling,” and “Best Daylight Lighting,” as well as tying with another school for first place in “Best Electric Lighting.”
The Virginia Tech solar house was hindered only by the complete lack of sunshine for the entire Decathlon. Instead of using batteries pre-charged before the competition began to power their house, as other teams chose to do, the Virginia Tech team anticipated at least one sunny day during the competition, which would have provided the house ample solar power. Robert Schubert, associate dean of research and outreach in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies and one of the lead faculty advisors for the project, said, “We’re proud of the team’s decision to operate the Virginia Tech solar house on solar energy. We were true to the spirit of the competition, so our team can be very proud.”
The 18 national and international solar decathlon teams were charged with creating attractive, practical, and efficient solar homes. For more information about the Solar Decathlon, go to http://www.eere.energy.gov/solar_decathlon.
