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SEPTEMBER 22, 2011 ISSUE

ASU Solar-Powered Home in D.C., Ready To Compete

Compiled by Jesse Wood

This is the view from the roof of ASU’s Solar Homestead. The National Mall in Washington, D.C. turns into a village of solar-powered homes during the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon. Photo courtesy of ASU Solar Homestead

The Solar Homestead team levels their solar-powered home on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The judged competition begins tomorrow. Photo courtesy of ASU Solar Homestead

Last week, the ASU Solar Homestead team and its unfinished 2,000-square-foot solar-powered home arrived at West Potomac Park on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

For two years, a group of ASU students have planned, designed and constructed the ASU Solar Homestead for the 2011 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, which is held September 23 to October 2.

In Washington, D.C., the team continues to work around the clock as it has for months in Boone at its headquarters—an old car dealership on U.S. 421. The team is so excited, though, to finally be in Washington, D.C. that exhaustion is an afterthought, said David Lee, communications manager for the team.

“A lot of anticipation for this moment,” Lee said. “We have been working nonstop. People are always on site…it’s coming together quickly.”

The Solar Decathlon is a biennial event that challenges college students to design, build and operate an affordable, efficient and attractive home powered entirely by the sun. During the 2009 event, 307,502 people visited the solar homes in the competition. This year 14 other U.S. teams, along with teams from China, Canada, Belgium and New Zealand, are competing against ASU.

ASU’s home features 984 feet of conditioned space and another 1,000 feet of deck space. The house contains 42 Sanyo bi-facial solar panels, which can produce 8.2 kilowatt-hours—much more electricity than a home in Boone would need, said Heather Kinsey, lead PV and electrical designer on the team. The design concept for the house is based on the ingenuity and independence of the original Appalachian settlers.

“We took this traditional homesteading idea, where you have this self-sufficient collection of buildings working together—spring house, smoke house, chicken coop and your living quarters,” Lee said. “And we took that idea and related it to solar power and technology and modern sustainable living.”

From September 12 to 22, the team has had 10 days to reconstruct its home and complete all of the finishing details, from building a handicap-accessible ramp to deciding which books to put on the book shelves. Some projects such as the handicap-accessible ramp and landscaping were done in Washington, D.C. because those projects were site specific, Lee said.

Not all of the team members are in Washington, D.C. right now. Some are working at headquarters in Boone and building the final elements of the home, such as the front porch, and students have been taking shifts to the capital and back, trying to balance their class work with the competition, Lee said.

Members of the Solar Homestead team were at last week’s football game against Savannah State passing out hats and drumming up support for the competition. Lee said many members of the community visited the headquarters this summer and expressed support and encouragement. He also said ASU’s Board of Trustees and Chancellor Kenneth E. Peacock have plans to visit the team’s house on the National Mall.

“We want everyone to come up and see it in its final state,” Lee said.

If you aren’t able to make it to Washington, D.C., the communications team is posting updates and photos on its website at www.thesolarhomestead.com. Also, the team will post a link on its website for people to vote for the Solar Decathlon’s People’s Choice Award. Voting for this award ends on October 1.

Solar Decathlon Contests

Like the Olympic decathlon, the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon consists of 10 contests. These contests are designed to gauge how well the houses perform and how livable and affordable they are. Each contest is worth a maximum of 100 points, for a competition total of 1,000 points. Contests based on task completion or monitored performance are called measured contests; contests based on jury evaluation are called juried contests. For more information, click to www.solardecathlon.org.

Listed below are the 10 contests of the Decathlon: