The team from Virginia Tech just took the top prize at Solar Decathlon Europe with their house pavilion, Lumenhaus, which was inspired by the Farnsworth House. The deep green home was on display in the Solar Village in Madrid and viewed by more than 190,000 visitors.
With the European counterpart to the Solar Decathlon now complete, the team from University of Florida walks away as winner of the Internet Award based on online voting open during the competition. Their home, Project RE:FOCUS, blends three elements from historic Florida houses — a covered open porch, a breezeway oriented to prevailing winds, and a porous breathable skin — in a striking way.
This morning the final results of the Solar Decathlon were announced. As expected, Technische Universität Darmstadt, aka Team Germany, took first prize. This is Team Germany’s second straight victory. In the net metering contest, the team gained almost thirteen more points than the next closest team, Illinois, which solidified the victory. Although the Popular Choice award will be released later this weekend, the competition is officially over. Make sure to check out all 20 Solar Decathlon homes from 2009 — they’re beautiful and inspirational. Here are the results (updated with Popular Choice later):
In a few hours, the U.S. Department of Energy will announce final results of the Solar Decathlon at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The Solar Decathlon is a competition of 20 teams of college and university students to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house. There are 10 subjective and objective contests in these categories: architecture, market viability, engineering, lighting design, communications, comfort zone, hot water, appliances, home entertainment, and net metering. At this time, the engineering and net metering contests are the only scores that have not been released. Is the suspense getting to you yet?
With only the engineering and net metering contests remaining, the Solar Decathlon entry for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is now slightly ahead of other contenders, including Team California and Team Germany. It’s a tight competition, though. Solar Decathlon director Richard King yesterday said Team Germany may just receive approximately 25 more points that the next closest team in the net metering contest. Such a point spread could propel the same to its second straight victory. Nevertheless, Illinois has this beautiful home built with reclaimed materials that can produce up to four times its energy needs at times.
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