UMD Solar Decathlon…off to the races!
Posted on October 22nd, 2010 by alex
Imagine you are part of a team or associated with an organization guided through privileged academia, involved in a nation-wide competition on developing innovative technology based on solar power. Well, let me introduce you to Solar Decathlon. Since its inception in 2002 birthed from the U.S Department of Energy, Solar Decathlon is a program that sponsors collegiate competition in the best design, construction, and operation of solar-powered houses – graded on affordability, architectural appeal, and energy efficient engineering.
Their efforts have gone as far as establishing 90 plus collegiate team pursuing course curricula or programs geared towards designing solar-powered houses. They are also recognized as one of the recommended educational programs for colleges. The program is now expanding to other academic levels such as K-12 students.
Solar Decathlon works to educate associated students about conservative means while promoting clean-energy resources. They also try to inform the public about available energy efficient appliances that are very much useful to average home owners.
The University of Maryland Student Solar Decathlon team, champions to the 2005 competition, is participating in another Solar Decathlon competition. Represented as WaterShed, University of Maryland is designing a “mini-ecosystem that captures and fully utilizes the energy of the sun, wind, and rain. It [is intended to] make use of household “wastes” that retain valuable energy and nutritients.”
This design is inspired by Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay watershed, which is plagued by urban sprawl and poor environmental practices. The pursuit of WaterShed is grounded by its core principles on harnessing technology and illustrate the strategies to achieve efficient sustainable performances and advancements – Net Zero.
A brief description from the team coupled with these pictures about the engineering design show that: “One roof will have a photovoltaic array and the other will have a green roof. The house will also include an edible wall and garden for production of food. WaterShed will utilize solar orientation, overhangs and glazing, thermal collectors and an energy recovery system in order to achieve its goals.”
It is such an enlightenment to have University of Maryland chosen as one of the few to engage in this fascinating modern technology which would be applied to their municipal infrastructure – Maryland. Not only does this endeavor initiate newer energy efficient resources within the DMV, it builds a base to develop renewable energy culture from the younger generation. So let us cheer to the efforts and “pulse” UMD Decathlon has created.
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- University of Maryland is GREEN
- Using solar for desalination
- Leasing solar power. Another option to go green.
- Solar Car Wash in College Park, MD
- fly around the world on solar power
Tags: Clean-energy Resources, Modern energy efficient technology, Net-Zero, Solar Decathlon, Solar engineering, solar-powered houses, U.S Department of Energy, WaterShed
This entry was posted on Friday, October 22nd, 2010 at 12:51 pm and is filed under Environment, Featured Content, Green Technology, Solar Energy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
beautiful!
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