Alternative Energy HQ solar power for homes, wind energy, and bio fuel issues
Often times our federal regulators and bureaucrats seem to be stifling innovation and growth in new technologies but not one agency seems to be promoting it and not a minute too soon. The DOE is sponsoring a contest to encourage new designs and innovations in solar energy production.
Up till now the best best known such promotion was the DARPA wacky solar car competition out in the desert of Nevada.
The Department of Energy has chosen 20 teams of engineers to compete to design, build and operate an [tag-ice]energy-efficient[/tag-ice] solar-powered home. The teams will build their solar houses then bring them to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. later this year to create a solar village.
Lee Bruno comments at Always On:
The DOE is calling its contest a “solar decathlon,†because each team will compete in 10 different categories for the overall prize. The basic requirement is that each team generate enough electricity, using only energy from the sun, to run a modern household.
This initiative is admirable. But the feds should have demonstrated similar commitment to [tag]solar power[/tag] beginning with the Arab oil embargo of 1973. They didn’t, because oil prices went back down. Pity. Imagine what sustained focus on solar energy might have delivered over those 30-plus years.
Solar Decathlon 2007 takes place on the National Mall in Washington D.C., October 12 – 20, 2007. The teams’ houses in the “solar village” are open for public tours 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., weekends, and 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. weekdays, except Wednesday, October 17, when the houses are closed for competition purposes.
The Solar Decathlon is a competition in which 20 teams of college and university students compete to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house. The Solar Decathlon is also an event to which the public is invited to observe the powerful combination of solar energy, energy efficiency, and the best in home design.
The event takes place in fall 2007 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The teams’ houses and the sponsors’ educational exhibits form a solar village
Teams of college students design a solar house, knowing from the outset that it must be powered entirely by the sun. In a quest to stretch every last watt of electricity that’s generated by the solar panels on their roofs, the students absorb the lesson that energy is a precious commodity. They strive to innovate, using high-tech materials and design elements in ingenious ways. Along the way, the students learn how to raise funds and communicate about team activities. They collect supplies and talk to contractors. They build their solar houses, learning as they go.
With investment in solar energy and other alternative energy sources going up each month, attracting attention from more than just hobby players one has to think that htis innovation and creativity contest would reveal some real results that can be translated the consumer marketplace.
Are we going to solve our energy problems with solar houses? Probably not but I am a firm believer that each of these steps make a difference in the move towards fixing our ways.
