Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Solar Living, Without Compromising on Lifestyle

Twenty teams of university students from the United States, Canada, and Europe are going head to head in the Solar Decathlon, a federal Department of Energy competition. Their challenged is to construct and design a solar powered home. The 10 day competition will consist with a series of test that should prove their solar powered home to be livable. They will also be judged on the "architect design, engineering skill and comfort."

I like the fact that this competition exists because it gives students a chance to showcase their skills but also their great ideas. One will never know if any of these students will come up with an invention or idea that we will be using in the future. With success, these students can prove that there is a way to live a "green" life in your own home.

3 comments:

Bartleby said...

That sounds like a really interesting competition. Any ideas that help make using solar power in your own home cost effective and possible are very valuable. When I visited some of my extended family in Wisconsin, I noticed many homes in the area had solar panels to supplement their energy use. It would be a great progress for our energy consumption if many homes in the world could start using solar power effectively. Hopefully these students can bring some fresh ideas to the table.

Vladimir said...

This is an interesting way of bringing solar power energy into your own home. It works great with the environment and will also help it out. It is true, one will never know but their inventions might be used in the future which to them will be an outstanding accomplishment.

Diego said...

How to find new ideas when we run out of them? Let people think about our problems and suggest what to do. What does this competition mean? Is it just a competition or is it a hunt of talents? Anyway maybe we find a new way to use solar energy, maybe we find the way to save money and get more energy, maybe we find the way to live cheaper...who knows, maybe our future is in hands of not expert scientists. Every development is welcome and more if they don't cost a dollar.