Eleven universities experienced the (sunny snowy ‘snowlar’)
U.S. Solar Decathlon in Denver, Colorado.
It’s October 2017, and this year’s U.S. edition of the Solar Decathlon competition took place in Denver, Colorado, a whirlwind celebration of energy-efficiency for all. The teams worked hard through tough and soft weather to construct their smart homes; it even snowed one day, a first for this biannual competition in sustainable architecture. For two weeks the Solar Decathlon site in Denver proudly exhibited houses designed and built by incredibly inspired (and inspirational!) international students. These young ambassadors for resource-responsibility believe in a planet where houses integrate circular systems to effectively educate a broad audience, while responsibly and respectfully maximising the use of all resources, especially water.
The overall first place for designing, building and operating the smartest, energy-efficient house went to the Swiss team. The University of Maryland took second place. And the duo team of University of California, Berkeley & University of Denver came in third. The Dutch team from Utrecht won the People’s Choice award, and Northwestern received the Student’s Choice award.
Each and every student from the eleven different university teams worked relentlessly for 2 years,
building the most creative, innovative, original and efficient houses. This really takes more than just
a few bright kids! It takes sweat and tears, and the collective heart that believes that ‘difficult’ is not
part of the vocabulary. For a quick peek into the experience of their journey, have a look at these short clips…
Learn more about the Solar Decathlon 2017 competition here:
https://www.solardecathlon.gov