WASHINGTON, DC, October 22, 2007 (ENS) - 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 house designed and built by Technische Universität Darmstadt displayed on the National Mall. (Photo courtesy Technische Universität Darmstadt)

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.

The German solar house featured a bed in the floor.

"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.

First and second place winning teams rejoice at the 2007 Solar Decathlon awards ceremony Saturday.

"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.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2007. All rights reserved.