German House Won Solar Decathlon on National Mall

German House Won Solar Decathlon on National Mall



October 2007

 Germany’s Technische Universität 
Darmstadt took top honors in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar 
Decathlon competition on the National Mall in Washington. University teams 
competed in 10 areas, ranging from architecture, livability and comfort to 
how well the homes provided energy for space heating and cooling, hot 
water, lighting, and appliances. 
Over the past two weeks, 20 university teams from the United States, 
Puerto Rico, Spain, Germany, and Canada brought homes that took two years 
to design, build and operate the most attractive and energy efficient 
solar powered home. 

The Solar Decathlon’s homes are net-zero-energy, yield zero carbon, and 
include the latest high-tech solutions and money-saving benefits to 
consumers, without sacrificing comfort, convenience, and aesthetics. 
Solar power is used to run everything in the houses, with enough power 
left over to run an electric car. The teams worked for more than two years 
designing, building and testing their homes to bring them to the Solar 
Decathlon. 
Technische Universität Darmstadt earned 888.45 points out of a possible 
1,200 to win the competition, followed by University of Maryland with 
872.45 points and Santa Clara University with 860.80 points. 
Darmstadt won the architecture, lighting, and engineering contests. The 
architecture jury said the house pushed the envelope on all levels and is 
the type of house they came to the decathlon hoping to see. The architects 
judged homes on ease of entry into the house and circulation among the 
public and private areas; architectural strategy used to accommodate the 
technologies required to run the house; and generosity and sufficiency of 
space in the house as well as the house’s strength, suitability and 
appropriateness of materials in the building 
The lighting jury loved the way this house glows at night. The engineering 
jury gave this team an innovation score that was as high as you could go, 
and said nobody did the integration of the photovoltaic system any better. 

"The victory of our team in this international competition makes me 
extraordinarily happy," said university President Hans Juergen Proemel. 
"It underlines that Germany is the worldwide leader when it comes to 
renewable energies." 
"With our singular house," he said, "we give an answer to the future 
question, how will humankind live in the 21st Century, in an age when 
resources are becoming ever more scarce?" 
Darmstadt was one of seven teams to score a perfect 100 points in the 
Energy Balance contest. All week, long lines of people waited to get into 
this house. Inside, they say oak louvers on the windows that move with the 
sun, Plexiglas walls, and a bed in the floor. 
Now that the Solar Decathlon is over, the house will return to Germany to 
be used as a solar power plant as part of the university's project of a 
solar campus. All buildings on the campus will be equipped with 
building-integrated photovoltaics that feed electricity into the German 
power grid. 
While congratulating the teams at the closing awards ceremony Saturday, 
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman announced over $44 million to support the 
commercialization and promotion of advanced solar and other clean energy 
technologies.

"I want to congratulate this year's Solar Decathlon champion Technische 
Universität Darmstadt and the 19 other teams for their innovative designs 
and application of solar technologies," Secretary Bodman said. "The Solar 
Decathlon is a great demonstration of the ways in which technology, 
science and design can be blended in the production of net-zero-energy 
homes." 
The University of Maryland Solar Decathlon Team capped its second place 
honors in the competition by winning the BP Solar People's Choice Award. 
The team amassed the most votes as the favorite of visitors to the 
Decathlon site over nine days. 
The Santa Clara, Penn State and Madrid teams rounded out the top five. 
The Maryland students call their solar home the LEAFhouse - in part 
reflecting its green design and in honor of nature's most efficient solar 
panel - the leaf. 
The Maryland LEAFHouse has one of the few technical innovations in the 
competition - a waterfall that incorporates design and function to reduce 
moisture and the energy needed for air conditioning, called a liquid 
desiccant system. 
The basic idea is to use a material called a desiccant. In this case a 
type of salt called calcium chloride was used to absorb water directly 
from the air without all the complicated machinery and energy requirements 
of conventional air conditioning system. 
As the desiccant absorbs water, it becomes diluted and its ability to dry 
the air declines. The desiccant needs to be regenerated. This can be done 
by simply heating up the desiccant and letting the water evaporate to the 
outside air. LEAFHouse uses heat from the solar hot water collectors to 
regenerate the desiccant. 
The Solar Decathlon was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and its 
National Renewable Energy Laboratory; the American Institute of 
Architects; the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air 
Conditioning Engineers; the National Association of Homebuilders; the U.S. 
Green Building Council; and private-sector sponsors BP and Sprint. 
On Friday, U.S. and Spanish officials agreed to collaborate in the 
development of a Solar Decathlon Europe competition in 2010.

"We have great hope that the development of a European edition of the 
Solar Decathlon competition, to take place in Madrid in 2010," said 
Spanish Undersecretary of Housing Fernando Magro. "This event not only 
furthers the ties between the United States and Europe but it will also 
further foster the development and use of energy efficient and sustainably 
developed housing throughout the world." 
At the awards ceremony Saturday, Secretary Bodman announced that four 
teams of contractors that work with the Energy Department's Building 
America program will receive $40 million over the next five years to 
develop net-zero-energy homes. The funds will be disbursed from FY 2008 to 
FY 2012, subject to annual appropriations by Congress. 
These homes will use 70 percent less energy than homes built to current 
building codes, and will incorporate solar or other onsite renewable 
systems to provide the balance of their energy needs. 
This funding is part of the Building America program, a private-public 
partnership sponsored by the Energy Department. The Building America 
Program advocates a systems engineering approach to home building that 
unites segments of the building industry that traditionally work 
independently of one another. It forms teams of architects, engineers, 
builders, equipment manufacturers, material suppliers, community planners, 
mortgage lenders, and contractor trades. 
Secretary Bodman also announced two regional building technology 
application centers at the University of Central Florida and Washington 
State University that will serve 17 states. 
The Energy Department awarded $4.1 million, subject to negotiation and 
annual appropriation, to accelerate the adoption of new and developing 
energy-efficient technologies by the market. 

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