The biennial Solar Decathlon is coming up next month with teams preparing their solar-powered homes for West Potomac Park in Washington, D.C. The competition will showcase modern, energy-efficient homes from 19 teams from September 23 – October 2, 2011. We’ve taken a look at the architectural models for each home and continue our coverage this year with a look at the renderings.  There’s some great work here.  Any predictions?  Which team will take it all?

Appalachian State University
The Solar Homestead — www.thesolarhomestead.com

Florida International University
perFORM[D]ance House — solardecathlon.fiu.edu

Middlebury College
Self-Reliance — solardecathlon.middlebury.edu

New Zealand: Victoria University of Wellington
First Light — www.firstlighthouse.ac.nz

The Ohio State University
enCORE — solardecathlon.osu.edu

Parsons and Stevens Institute of Technology
Empowerhouse — parsit.parsons.edu

Purdue University
INhome — www.purdue.edu/inhome/

SCI-Arc/Caltech
CHIP — www.chip2011.com

Team Belgium: Ghent University
E-Cube — www.solardecathlon.ugent.be

Canada: University of Calgary
Technological Residence, Traditional Living (TRTL) — www.solardecathlon.ca

Team China: Tongji University
Y Container — solardecathlon.tongji.edu.cn

Team Florida (USF, FSU, UCF, and UF)
Flex House — www.flexhouse.org

Team Massachusett (MassArt, Umass Lowell)
4D Home — www.4dhome.us

Team New Jersey (Rutgers, NJIT)
ENJOY House — www.solarteamnewjersey.com

Team New York (The City College of New York)
Solar Roofpod — www.ccnysolardecathlon.com

Tidewater Virginia (ODU, Hampton U)
Unit 6 Unplugged — www.teamtidewaterva.org

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Re_home — www.solardecathlon.illinois.edu

University of Maryland
WaterShed — 2011.solarteam.org

The University of Tennessee
Living Light: UT Solar Decathlon House — www.livinglightutk.com

[+] Check out the Solar Decathlon 2011 models.

*University of Hawaii has withdrawn from competition.

Credits: U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon.