| Solar Decathlon 2009: Home Showcase | | A look at some of the technologies, designs and people behind the homes that competed in the U.S. Department of Energy's 2009 Solar Decathlon. The event brought 20 teams from colleges and universities around the world together to see who's solar-powered home would rise to the top. The teams competed in competitions that included net metering, architecture, communications, market viability and hot water production. |  | | | Click Here to View Video | | Team California's Refract House | | Designed as a California style home, the Refract House features a bent design to take advantage of south-facing vistas on California's Pacific Coast. This house includes a cutting-edge, solar thermal absorption chiller supplying radiant cooling panels. Team California won the Architecture and Communications competitions in this year's Decathlon. |  | | | Click Here to View Video | | Team North's North House | | The BeauSoleil Home's north-south orientation was designed to take advantage of the local wind patterns on Louisiana's Gulf Coast. Floor-to-ceiling windows provide ventilation and natural light, and louvered shutters and structural insulated panels reinforce the house against hurricane-force winds. The home also features a unique open floor design and large Cajun-style kitchen. This home won the Market Viability contest in this year's even |  | | | Click Here to View Video | | University of Louisiana at Lafayette's | | The BeauSoleil Home's north-south orientation was designed to take advantage of the local wind patterns on Louisiana's Gulf Coast. Floor-to-ceiling windows provide ventilation and natural light, and louvered shutters and structural insulated panels reinforce the house against hurricane-force winds. The home also features a unique open floor design and large Cajun-style kitchen. This home won the Market Viability contest in this year's even |  | | | Click Here to View Video | | | Visit Us at Solar Power International! | | RenewableEnergyWorld.com will be bringing you more interviews from this year's Solar Power International event in Anaheim, California – next week, October 27 - 29. Stop by in person or visit online via our Internet Video Broadcast (IVB). We'll be chatting with industry leaders from across the solar space, looking into the technology, policy and financial deals that have pushed the industry forward in the last year. Meet our Editorial Staff in our IVB Studio, Booth #1721. Our Marketing Team will be available at booth #3060 to answer all of your questions about marketing your company worldwide. Plus, if you're looking to start or advance your career in solar, don't forget to stop by our Jobs Center at in Hall D at the end of row 2600.  | | | Team Germany's surPLUShome | | The defending champions from 2007 designed and built a two-story, cube-shaped building with PV panels on the roof and sides and a single multifunctional living area on the inside. The home features a surface area that is almost totally covered with PV panels —single-crystal silicon on the roof, thin-film copper indium gallium diselenide on the sides for 19-kW total. The team from the Technische Universität Darmstadt won again in 2009 thanks in large part to a win in the net metering competition. |  | | | Click Here to View Video | | Cornell University's Silo House | | Described as agricultural/industrial in style, the exterior of the home is covered with COR-TEN, a corrugated, steel cladding that loses its original sheen as the outer layer oxidizes to a weather-proof ruddy coating. The team said its goal was to make the home look like something would fit in a field outside Ithaca, New York where the school is locat |  | | | Click Here to View Video | | Rice University's ZEROW HOUSE | | Designed as a shotgun style home, typical of the middle and lower income areas of the Gulf Coast, the team will give this home to Project Row Houses, a local community development organization in Houston, Texas. The team's goal was to build a practical house that demonstrates affordability and energy efficiency using readily available technologies that can all be purchased off the shelves at stores like Home Depot and Ikea. |  | | | Click Here to View Video | | Team Spain's Black & White House | | A modern style home featuring a solar-tracking top roof that may be the first of its kind. The university has filed for a patent on the ball-and-socket, central-pivot system that makes it possible. It was also designed to be easily transportable and featured a simulated geothermal heating/cooling system. |  | | | Click Here to View Video | |
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