Saturday October 1 I attended the Solar Decathlon, hosted by the US Department of Energy in West Potomac Park of the National Mall. This was the fifth Decathlon held since it began in 2002. The way the competition works is teams of college students from around the world design and build a solar powered house that are then put up against each other to compete in 10 different contests varying from architecture to affordability and home appliances. From here the numbers are tallied up to give overall winners and other awards.
The day we chose to go on was the last day of the Event where awards were being set. Despite the rain, which was relentless throughout, hoards of people showed up to tour the different houses. Lines were stretching around the houses and people were buckling down to wait out the rain in ponchos and umbrellas to spare. The houses themselves were highly impressive. Because of the lines and the rain we made it to two houses those being that of Team Illinois and the Team City College of New York.
The University of Illionis at Urbana-Champaign built their house in the thinking of preparing for a natural disaster. Proficient at rapid response the house can be pre-constructed and quickly deployed to aide disaster affected areas. Upon arrival the house can be assembled within a day becoming a livable space and providing shelter for disaster victims as their communities rebuild. The inside design was attractive and modern with innovative storage places and layout to make the most efficient use of space.
The City College of New York Team idea for building the Solar Roofpod was centered around the fact that urban rooftops are not used efficiently for solar production. Intended for existing mid-rise buildings, the house enables eco-conscious city dwellers to live lightly by producing solar power, cultivating roof gardens, and retaining and recycling storm water. The Roofpod gives economic benefits to the home dweller producing 190 pounds of vegetables (half of the residents annual consumption) as well as generating 11,600 kilo-watt hours per year – saving around 2,300 dollars in electric bills. The design of the house I enjoyed more than the modern take of Team Illinois. The walls had bamboo paneling and an earthy vibe making it an attractive purchase to “eco” minded people. The set up of the house was extremely space efficient while still maintaining a homey atmosphere.
This event was a great way to get the public involved and interested in sustainable living. They were able to see how the different houses were set up to maximize their energy efficiency in relation to the weather and other factors that are affected by the location of their house. In a way the solar decathlon made lengths to make sustainable living accessible to the general public and I think it shows what progress our country is making with the government support this program received. With our exponentially growing population of 7 billion estimated to grow to 8 billion by 2050 the World population needs to put more funding into the ventures of sustainable living and development. Our species cannot continue to exacerbate our resources to such an extent where we are putting the ecosystem around us in jeopardy leading to water scarcity, and land degradation. The solar decathlon is a step in the right direction of the awareness that needs to be given to this problem and it was encouraging to see the immense interest from the public for this event.
I was so glad I attended the event. The fact that these students from different majors were able to get together and come up with the entire concept and be able to make their vision a reality is unbelievable and a great achievement. Getting home from the event I looked online to get more information about possibly becoming part of the team for the coming year but was disappointed to find, confirming my answers when I asked the students participating in the different houses what the majors were that joined in, Environmental Science and Policy is not exactly a hot ticket item for the project. After finding that out I proceeded to send in my application to become part of the group for the coming year.