sde10_ madrid
10 year anniversary

What a difference a decade makes: Ten years of Solar Decathlon Europe.

It has been a full decade since the SDE community truly came to life. Intent on perpetuating the original mandate of the incredible U.S. DOE-driven competition in sustainable architecture and engineering, the Spanish Ministry of Housing and the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid were eager to extend the Solar Decathlon internationally.

Kickstarting the Solar Decathlon worldwide movement, the first edition of the Solar Decathlon Europe was launched ten years ago today, June 18, 2010 in the Campo del Moro under the Royal Palace of Madrid. The ten days of Competition united over 1 000 students, seventeen Teams from seven different countries, and three continents.

For this first SDE edition, the Spanish Government asked the Universidad Politècnica de Madrid to focus on two main objectives: firstly, to promote innovation and stimulate knowledge; Decathletes are the technicians who become our leaders, improving the performance of buildings through their professional design activities. Secondly, to raise awareness of responsible energy use. These objectives were channelled through the hundreds of participating students, more than 192 000 visitors, and 5 000 media entries.

The 10ACTION Plan, a project supported by the European Commission, increased awareness for a sustainable built environment and energy-literacy, through games, competitions, debates, workshops, and conferences, reaching countless European citizens. The ten contests of the SDE10 competition were divided into five areas: architecture, solar, comfort, socio-economics, and strategy. Of these ten, six were evaluated by juries, four by quantitative measurements. Additionally, Teams were faced with beating Spanish summer sun and wild thunderstorms.

Nothing could stop the Teams from their best performances, with a shared international celebration honouring Europe’s first SDE champion team: Team Lumenhaus, by Virginia Tech, from the United States of America, home of the original Solar Decathlon Competition!

Join us over the coming days (June 18 – 27, 2020) as we profile and celebrate the seventeen participating Teams of the first international Solar Decathlon Europe exactly ten years after the SDE10 launch. Read the entire story and documentation here: SDE 2010: Towards Energy Efficient Buildings. Detailed information on each house is linked and available on the Building Competition Knowledge Platform (BCKP).