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.

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.

Before a packed auditorium today at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, the University of Maryland took first place in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon Architecture Contest.

“WaterShed achieves an elegant mix of inspiration, function, and simplicity. It takes our current greatest challenges in the built environment—energy and water—and transforms them into opportunities for spatial beauty and poetry while maintaining livability in every square inch,” said Architecture Contest Juror Michelle Kaufmann.

New Zealand (Victoria University of Wellington) claimed second place for First Light, its modern interpretation of the traditional New Zealand holiday home, the Kiwi bach.

Appalachian State University received third place for its Solar Homestead, which features outdoor living spaces.

“This year’s teams have managed to raise the bar even higher and have made the job of judging the Architecture Contest extremely difficult for the jury, which tried to find the subtle distinction that separates first from second, and second from third,” Kaufmann said. “The top three projects span the globe; each celebrating its unique regional influences and climatic differences.”

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

• Architectural elements that include the scale and proportion of room and facade features, indoor/outdoor connections, composition and linking of various house elements
• Holistic design, meaning an architectural design that will be comfortable for occupants and compatible with the surrounding environment
• Lighting, assessing the integration and energy efficiency of electrical and natural light
• Inspiration as reflected in a design that inspires and delights Solar Decathlon visitors
• Documentation that includes drawings, a project manual, and an audiovisual architecture presentation that accurately reflect the constructed project on the competition site.

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

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

Under mostly cloudy skies and occasional light rain, U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon teams continue assembling their houses around the clock to finish the assembly phase of the competition, which for most (and hopefully all) teams will end Tuesday.

New Zealand celebrates a team member’s birthday and says goodbye to its Canadian team crew from Fenshawe College in Ontario. (Credit: Richard King/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon)

Today, I attended a party that New Zealand (Victoria University of Wellington) held for a team member’s birthday and to say goodbye to their Canadian friends who came from Ontario to help them. The Canadians—from Fanshawe College—are contemplating applying for Solar Decathlon 2013, so the New Zealand team suggested they join them as team crew. Fanshawe sent a few staff and students for assembly and disassembly, and some of them will stay in Washington for the entire event.

In other news:

• Team Massachusetts (Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell) arrived on Thursday three days late but assembled its main structure in only six hours.
• Team New Jersey (Rutgers – The State University of New Jersey and New Jersey Institute of Technology) finished installing its solar array today.
• Maryland was the first team to qualify for electricity meter installation (which happened yesterday) and as of this morning led the other teams in the number of inspections passed.

In addition, the Southern California Institute of Architecture and California Institute of Technology took my camera up in their cherry picker for some way-cool aerial views of the village.

Aerial view of the solar village, with the roof of the SCI-Arc/Caltech house in the foreground, Team Massachusetts in foreground to the left, and Team New York (The City College of New York ) to the right. Maryland is between and just behind them. (Credit: Richard King/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon)

Tomorrow will be more assembly—which will include the installation of lots of village infrastructure (tents, signage, and portable walkways for visitors)—and, no doubt, more firsts and finishes by this stellar group of teams.

Stay tuned!

Richard King is director of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon.

U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon Director Richard King talks to student team members about their assembly progress.