Consistently appearing in first place in overall standings throughout the competition, the University of Maryland won the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced the competition results today before an excited audience that packed the main tent in the solar village.

“Maryland is a well-experienced team. After taking second place in 2007, they rested and regrouped in 2009 and came to West Potomac Park in 2011 focused and determined to win,” said Solar Decathlon Director Richard King. “In addition, Maryland’s Watershed is a beautiful house, judged first place in Architecture, which also performed impeccably in measured contests. This team mastered their strategies to ensure they excelled in all 10 contests.”

Purdue University took second place in the competition, and New Zealand (Victoria University of Wellington) received the third-place award.

The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency.

Results for the fifth and final juried contest, Market Appeal, were announced today prior to the competition winners. Middlebury College placed first.

“Self-Reliance left the jury very impressed, eclipsing our expectations across the board in livability and marketability,” said Brad Beeson, Market Appeal juror. “Middlebury College defined its market carefully—a young family of four with a modest income for the region—and demonstrated the fit for that target market with a very compelling video.”

Maryland came in second in Market Appeal, and New Zealand came in third.

The Market Appeal contest judges each house’s livability, buildability, and marketability.

For more final results, see the Solar Decathlon 2011 scores and standings.

Carol Anna is the communications manager of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon.

With exemplary communications materials, public tours, and website, Middlebury College received first place in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon Communications Contest today.

“Middlebury College, this year’s winner of the Communications Contest, is a very authentic team that conveyed the best of New England architecture. This team’s holistic approach to communications was refreshing; they achieved in all aspects of communications—not just in one area,” said Ryan Park, director of business development for REC Solar Inc., who presented the award on behalf of the Communications Contest jurors. “This team made renewable energy technologies familiar to the public, which we believe will help people more easily embrace these technologies. And isn’t that what it’s all about?”

Appalachian State University received second place for its contagious passion and enthusiasm. The jurors felt the team offered the best menu of creatively explained ideas that visitors could take home and implement today.

Winning third place, the University of Maryland presented consistent messaging, strong educational exhibit components, and a compelling story.

The Communications contest jury evaluated:

• Web content quality, appropriateness, and originality
• Video walkthrough information, the accuracy of the representation of the as-built house on the competition site, accessible captioning, clarity of the audio narrative, and creativity
• The quality of onsite graphics, photos, displays, and signage
• The delivery of messages to target audiences and people of all abilities
• The use of innovative methods to engage audiences, including Web site visitors and people waiting to tour a house.

“Some people might wonder why communications is included in a competition to design and build solar houses. It’s important because communication is our tool for educating the greater population about everything we’re working toward with the Solar Decathlon,” said Richard King, Solar Decathlon director. “In fact, communication is the most powerful thing you can do to spread our message across the globe. We’re not going to succeed if people don’t know what we’re doing. We’re here to show our houses and tell our story. Otherwise, there’s no reason to be here.”

For full scoring details, visit the Communications Contest scores page.

Carol Anna is the communications manager of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon.

U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon organizers have corrected the Affordability Contest results after discovering a minor error in the scoring spreadsheet calculations.

Although they do not change overall competition standings, the corrected numbers have changed the outcome of the Affordability Contest, including:

• With its E-Cube now correctly valued at $249,568.09, Team Belgium (Ghent University) moved into the tie for first place with Parsons the New School for Design and Stevens University (which includes Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy at The New School). The cost estimation of Parsons NS Stevens did not have change.
• Unfortunately, Purdue University has moved from first into second place; the value of INhome is now estimated at $257,853.70 instead of $249,568.09.

The Southern California Institute of Architecture and California Institute of Technology cost estimate remained unchanged, and the team retained its third-place position with CHIP, valued at $262,495.11.

“The Solar Decathlon organizers want, above all, to ensure the integrity of our competition and contest results,” said Richard King, director of the Solar Decathlon. “We regret that some of the teams have been affected by this error but, in the end, feel teams can be reassured that our processes are fair.”

See the updated contest results for more information.

Joe Simon is the competition manager of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon.

Wowing jurors with its attention to detail, craftsmanship, and unusual energy visualization system, New Zealand (Victoria University of Wellington) received first place today in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011 Engineering Contest for its First Light house.

“The New Zealand house was beautifully executed, with extreme attention to detail and craftsmanship and an intuitive tree-ring visualization system, which makes it easy to understand energy use throughout the house,” said Engineering Contest juror Dr. Hunter Fanney, chief of the building energy and environment division of the engineering laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Coming in second place, Southern California Institute of Architecture and California Institute of Technology received praise from the Engineering Jury for its forward-thinking control system with ultimate user interaction and its unique thermal envelope design that uses commercially available materials such as recycled denim.

The University of Tennessee took third place for its Living Light house, which incorporates off-the-shelf technology for heating and cooling equipment. The team also received praise for its vented double-glass façade.

According to Richard King, Solar Decathlon director, the engineering contest is very important to winning the overall competition.

“The key to winning the Solar Decathlon is getting the house to perform well in the measured contests, which account for half of the points available,” King said. “The best-performing house is a well-engineered house, which is why the Engineering Contest is so important.”

For the Engineering Contest, the jury evaluated the houses on:

• Functionality – To ensure the energy and HVAC systems function as intended
• Efficiency – To measure how much energy the house would save over the course of a year relative to using conventional systems
• Innovation – To gauge the design solutions and their true market potential
• Reliability – To assess the systems and how well they operate at a high level of performance
• Documentation – By reviewing drawings, a project manual, and an audiovisual engineering presentation that accurately reflect the project as constructed on the competition site.

For full scoring details, visit the Engineering Contest scores page.

Carol Anna is the communications manager of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon.

How do you identify the measured contest captain on each U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon team? Listen for words such as datalogger, monitored performance subcontest, and database-driven scoring application.

These students focus on maximizing the points their teams earn in the five measured contests:

• Comfort Zone
• Hot Water
• Appliances
• Home Entertainment
• Energy Balance.

To be successful in measured contests, the decathletes must strategize. For some measured contests, they must complete tasks such as washing a load of towels and operating a home entertainment system for a set time. A group of observers keeps detailed logs on their task performance that are later translated into scores. For other measured contests, the competition houses are equipped with sensors that measure factors such as humidity and temperature. An instrument called a datalogger keeps track of the data points and sends this information to a central database every 15 minutes.

The datalogger in Team New Zealand’s house is competition-ready. (Credit: Alexis Powers/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon)

“The equations in the rules define how we take information from the dataloggers and observer logs and calculate a score,” says Mike Wassmer, the scorekeeper and assistant competition manager of Solar Decathlon 2011. These algorithms translate a sea of data into a final score for each measured contest.

To follow your favorite team’s progress in the measured contests, visit the scoring pages on the Solar Decathlon website. Then tell all friends about it—and make sure to spice up your conversation with words such as observer logs and central scoring database.

Alexis Powers is a member of the Solar Decathlon communications team.