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Planet-Profit Report, reporting on sustainable development in the Western United States.

ASU, U of New Mexico team up for world-wide Solar Decathlon

The challenge: Build affordable, beautiful solar homes

By Joe Kullman, Arizona State University

Arizona State University has been selected to be part of one of 20 teams from universities and colleges throughout the United States and the world to compete in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2013.

ASU will team with the University of New Mexico (UNM) for the international competition to build energy-efficient, solar-powered houses “that combine affordability, consumer appeal and design excellence,” according to the DOE’s announcement.

At a Jan. 26 ceremony on the UNM campus to announce selection of the teams, DOE Secretary Steven Chu met with ASU/UNM team members, including ASU’s Katherine Muto, an engineering education doctoral student; James LeBeau, an electrical engineering doctoral student; and Edward Burgess, who is pursuing a master’s degree in the Solar Energy Engineering and Commercialization program.

Teams will begin a nearly two-year process of designing, constructing and testing their structures. They will reassemble the houses next year in Irvine, Calif., for the Solar Decathlon event at the Orange County Great Park.

Houses will be judged on architectural and engineering features, and how energy for heating and cooling is produced, among other things.

The competition provides ASU an opportunity to combine its educational and research resources in engineering, architecture, design and other disciplines “to tackle the pressing problem of energy sustainability,” says Christiana Honsberg, an engineering professor at ASU.

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