The earth receives more energy from the sun in just ONE HOUR than the world uses in a whole year.

The Solar Decathlon was held last week on the Mall in Washington DC. The decathlon is both a physical and academic competition with 20 teams competing in 10 contests. The goal is to design, build, and operate a liveable, energy-efficient solar-power house. Each year dozens of teams apply to be invited but only 20 make the cut. This year first place went to Technische Universität Darmstadt, and second to University of Maryland. Both teams were one of seven teams to score a perfect 100 points in the Energy Balance contest - that’s impressive.

I had a chance to tour the University of Maryland house which was just as impressive as their second place prize, the home was very well designed, it had a great modern feel with lots of natural wood and steel used throughout the constructions and furnishings. One of the 10 contests is Market Viability and this team had some great designs for studio, 1, and 2 bedroom units as well as urban infill designs where the units are stacked to create townhouses or 35 units apartment buildings.

One of the most interesting pieces of the German entry was the fact that it helped educate its visitors about a German Solar Energy Policy – something the US is badly missing. The solar decathlons web site described the policy in this way; Germany has a “solar feed-in tariff” that provides a guaranteed price for any solar power that is fed into the German power grid. Because the feed-in tariff is high enough to more than cover the cost of the installation over the long term, the university is selling shares to the public to finance these photovoltaic systems. This yields a return for the investors as the revenue from selling the power is split among them. The Solar Decathlon house will be the first piece in this ambitious project—continuing to showcase the potential of building-integrated solar power generation.