This story was originally published in Builder.
The U.S. Department of Energy is launching the first Virtual Village for the 2020 Solar Decathlon, set to open to the public April 12. The Virtual Village, set on a virtual edition of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., will showcase nine zero-energy homes designed and constructed by collegiate teams from around the world.
The Solar Decathlon challenges student teams to design and build high-performance homes powered by renewable energy. The event includes the one- to two-semester Design Challenge, a design-only competition, and the Build Challenge, a two-year design-build competition.
The 2020 Build Challenge competition event and public exhibition were previously scheduled to take place on the National Mall in the summer of 2020, where the event has been held every two years since 2002. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was postponed and re-envisioned as a local home building event, with teams of students constructing their homes in their local communities as permanent structures. The Solar Decathlon intends to continue this model—all local builds—through the next competition in 2023 and beyond.
Visitors, including industry partners, student groups, and the public, are invited to explore the homes at no cost. Events include a Solar Decathlon home scavenger hunt, as well as a toolkit of educational activities for students and teachers.
This year’s Build Challenge participants include teams from:
- Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Valparaíso, Chile
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- University of Colorado
- Kansas State University
- University of Denver
- University of Nevada
- Hogeschool Utrecht University of Applied Science, Netherlands
- University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario
- Weber State University, Ogden, Utah
The student teams will host live virtual home tours in three time slots: 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. EST April 12 for the general public; 1 to 3 p.m. EST April 13 for students and teachers; and 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. April 13 for industry professionals.
To read more stories like this, please visit Builder.
