Go west, Solar Decathlon

For 2013, Solar Decathlon organizers decided to extend the competition’s reach beyond Washington and showcase energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies to a new group of visitors and sponsors. The Orange County Great Park, located between Los Angeles and San Diego, is a dynamic venue that can accommodate the 20 competition houses and the special needs of the Solar Decathlon event—featuring flexible space, ample visitor parking, existing facilities for large special events, and nearby services for visitors.

The move follows a kerfuffle that saw the Energy Department lose its traditional spot on the Mall, between the Washington Monument and the Capitol, for last year’s event. It was moved to nearby to West Potomac Park, adjacent the mall, in a compromise with the Interior Department.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu, in a statement Thursday, touted the event and threw in a plug for President Obama’s State of the Union speech.

“As President Obama made clear in the State of the Union address this week, we need to ensure that the next generation of America’s architects, engineers and entrepreneurs have the hands-on experience and training they need to lead our nation’s clean energy future,” he said. 

“The Solar Decathlon will unleash the ingenuity, creativity and drive from these talented students to demonstrate new ideas for how families and businesses can reduce energy use and save money with clean energy products and efficient building design,” Chu added.

The decathlon features college and university teams designing, building and displaying homes that are judges on a suite of attributes, including energy production and architecture.

DOE on Thursday announced the teams for the 2013 event. They are:

• Arizona State University and the University of New Mexico (Tempe, Ariz., and Albuquerque, N.M.)
• Czech Technical University (Prague, Czech Republic)
• Hampton University and Old Dominion University (Hampton and Norfolk, Va.)
• Middlebury College (Middlebury, Vt.)
• Missouri University of Science and Technology (Rolla, Mo.)
• Norwich University (Northfield, Vt.)
• Queens University, Carleton University and Algonquin College (Kingston and Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) 
• Santa Clara University (Santa Clara, Calif.)
• Southern California Institute of Architecture and California Institute of Technology (Los Angeles)
• Stanford University (Palo Alto, Calif.)
• Stevens Institute of Technology (Hoboken, N.J.)
• The Catholic University of America, George Washington University, and American University (Washington)
• The University of North Carolina at Charlotte (Charlotte, N.C.)
• The University of Texas at El Paso and El Paso Community College (El Paso, Texas)
• University of Calgary (Calgary, Alberta, Canada)
• University of Louisville, Ball State University and University of Kentucky (Louisville, Ky.; Muncie, Ind.; and Lexington, Ky.)
• University of Nevada Las Vegas (Las Vegas)
• University of Southern California (Los Angeles)
• Vienna University of Technology (Vienna, Austria)
• West Virginia University (Morgantown, W.Va.)