Tech competes in Solar Decathlon

The Department of Energy has chosen Tech to be a participant in its Solar Decathlon, an international competition among 20 universities to build the most energy efficient and architecturally sound solar-powered home.

The teams, selected in January by the Department of Energy on a proposal-based system, are awarded $100,000 and given 18 months to do additional fund raising, planning and building. The houses will be transported in October of 2007 to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where judging will take place. Winners are named in ten different categories; seven are related to energy efficiency and three deal with design and comfort.

The Department of Energy will test the ability of the houses to maintain power and energy levels by running household appliances such as clothes washers, dryers and dishwashers. The functionality of automobiles dependent on the houses’ solar power will also be tested.

College of Architecture professors Chris Jarrett, Ruchi Choudhary and Franca Trubiano will lead Tech’s team.

“This is the first time Georgia Tech has ever done this. It’s a bit of an experiment but hopefully it will advance our research, expertise and scholarship in solar power housing,” Jarrett said.

Jarrett, Choudhary and Trubiano are seeking undergraduate and graduate students with varied backgrounds to help with the project.

“Student participation will take place on various levels,” Trubiano said. “Ph.D. students from the College of Architecture and the College of Electrical and Computer Engineering have already started to spearhead their own initiatives. There will be multiple ways to participate—some [students] might want to work on design, some on building.”

“We are open to participation from anyone,” Jarrett said. “If students have the skills that the project needs, we would be open to any degree-seeking student that would be interested in participating. We have already talked to the College of Management—they have expertise in fund raising, marketing and promotion. We see this as a Georgia Tech-wide proposal.”

The interdisciplinary team will also draw information from experts in various other academic and research units on campus such as the Center for Biologically Inspired Design and the Institute for Sustainable Technology and Development, Choudhary said.

“We are tying [the Solar Decathlon] with institute-wide initiatives and centers,” she said.

In addition, Choudhary is heading a weekly seminar series aimed at providing team members with information from experts in fields pertaining to the project.

The Solar Decathlon team’s leaders said that the project was in its earliest stages and that efforts were being made to recruit students from different disciplines.

“We are in the information gathering stage. We are trying to explore technologies, gather resources on campus, put student teams together and basically chalk out the process,” Choudhary said.

Trubiano said that the project would enter the design stage during the upcoming summer. Currently, the team’s leaders are currently working with Facilities to find a location for the building of the solar-powered house, which they will transport to Washington next year.