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U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon

Photo of a colorful crowd of people walking among modern-looking houses that line two sides of a street. In the background, trees are changing from green to orange and the U.S. capitol shines white against a blue sky.

The Solar Decathlon attracts thousands of visitors to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. This biennial design competition showcases houses that use energy entirely from the sun—and provides powerful training for approximately 2,000 student decathletes as they prepare to enter the workforce.
Credit: Kaye Evans-Lutterodt/Solar Decathlon

The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon has grown into a highly anticipated housing design competition that draws thousands of people to the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Twenty teams of students from universities around the world compete to design a solar house, build it, test it, and then ship it across a state, a continent, or an ocean. Once they arrive on the National Mall, the student "decathletes" must rebuild their houses within a week and put them through a series of 10 contests to determine a winning combination of aesthetics and performance.

This exciting, event culminates in the announcement of an overall winner—but for all the teams, the satisfaction of knowing that their houses could influence the way millions of people live in the future makes everyone a winner.

Expanding Building Technologies Research and Adoption

Among the Solar Decathlon's many goals are several that specifically address building technologies that:

  1. Demonstrate to the public the potential of zero-energy homes—which produce as much energy from renewable sources, such as the sun and wind—as they consume. Even though the home might be connected to a utility grid, it has net zero energy consumption from the utility provider.

  2. Educate the decathletes about the benefits of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and green building technologies. As the next generation of engineers and builders, the decathletes will be able to use this knowledge in their studies and their future careers.

  3. Help energy-saving technologies enter the marketplace faster. This competition encourages widespread adoption and use of energy-saving technologies by demonstrating their use, availability, and practicality to a wide variety of visitors to the National Mall and to the Solar Decathlon Web site.

  4. Promote an integrated or "whole building design" approach to new construction. This approach differs from the traditional design/build process because the design team considers the interactions of all building components and systems to create a more comfortable building that saves energy and reduces environmental impact.

Learn More

Find out more about the Solar Decathlon. You can also review the house designs from the 2009, 2007, and 2005 Solar Decathlon events.