Solar Decathlon Moves to West Coast

Solar Decathlon in Washington DC’s National Mall

Recently, students from across the country, Canada and Europe gathered in Irvine,
CA at the huge Orange County Great Park to
view the site of the U.S. DOE’s 2013 Solar Decathlon to be held October 3^rd
through the 13th. The biennial event is traditionally held in Washington D.C. Irvine was selected in favor of major metropolitan hubs
including New York, Atlanta
and Detroit as
the event’s 2013 host.

The makeup of the collegiate teams competing in the 2013 Solar Decathlon
represents 30 colleges and universities from 14 states, with teams also
representing Canada, Austria and the Czech Republic.
The teams gathered at the Orange
County Great
Park to tour the site and
return for a full-day workshop covering the Decathlon’s “nuts and bolts” on
Saturday.

The Solar Decathlon is a competition managed and coordinated by the U.S. Dept.
of Energy that challenges teams of students to design, build and demonstrate
solar-powered homes that are energy efficient, affordable, cost-effective and
aesthetically appealing.

The modular houses will be built “at home” at each team’s
campus, then disassembled and shipped to the Great Park,
where the teams will reassemble the structures. 

Orange County Great Park in Irvine, CA

In addition to the main solar home competition, display and
tours, the Great Park will concurrently host XPO, described as a “world’s fair
of clean, renewable and efficient energy” and technology. Tim Shaw, manager of
external affairs at Orange County Great Park Corporation, said that the goal of
the larger XPO is for visitors to come away and live differently as a result of
what they see and learn about renewable energy.