First held in 2002, the biennial international collegiate competition Solar Decathlon was created by the United States Department of Energy to challenge participants to design, implement, and construct full-scale solar-powered houses. The competition is split into 10 contests: architecture, market potential, engineering, communications, innovation, water, health and comfort, appliances, home life, and energy. In 2015, the Department of Energy together with Dubai Electricity & Water Authority created the Solar Decathlon Middle East (SDME) to extend the competition to Dubai. Customized to adapt to the area's harsh desert climate, two competitions are planned for 2018 and 2020 which will follow Solar Decathlon's previous editions' footprints. "The projects are developed by multidisciplinary teams, giving the students the opportunity to learn about technical issues, teamwork, communication skills, and sustainable lifestyle and socio-economic issues in order to ensure the viability of their project," according the SDME.
SDME's first 10-day-long competition in Dubai will be held in 2018, with Virginia Tech's FutureHAUS Dubai as the only U.S. team that will compete against 22 international universities. Building on the team's long-term ongoing research, the namesake project will be a combination of FutureHAUS—a prototype that burned down in a fire back in February—and LumenHAUS—the team's winning design at the 2010 Solar Decathlon Europe, and recipient of the AIA Honor Award in 2012. The entire project will be constructed off-site in "cartridges"—an experimental prefabricated construction technique developed by the team—and shipped to the designated location in Dubai for installation. "Interior rooms and walls are factory-built from the inside-out in plug-and-play cartridges, allowing better customization, technology, adaptability, cost, efficiency, and safety than conventional 'stick-built homes,'" said Joe Wheeler, AIA, professor of architecture and co-director of the Center for Design Research, in a press release.
An array of 40 SunPower solar panels will power the house with an estimated 6,000 kilowatts of energy. This week, the team started a fundraising campaign to partially cover project costs, including the purchase of solar panels (which cost nearly $60,000), and have raised nearly 25 percent of their ultimate $10,000 goal. "We aim to create a net-positive energy home that demonstrates the future of modular, affordable, and smart housing," said the team on their crowdfunding campaign. "We are researching concepts of aging in place, flexible space, and Internet of Things."
The team is planning to begin construction on FutureHAUS Dubai in less than six weeks—after the end of the campaign. The kitchen and bathroom will be built first, before the entire house is completed by spring of 2018. Next summer, the electrical system and the house's functioning will be put to a test before the team travels to Dubai for the competition in fall of 2018.
Read our past coverage of Solar Decathlon competition here.
