Cinderella, of the Solar Generation

Thus pronounced US Secretary of Energy Samual Bodman, "Santa Clara University, the Cinderella story of this week has rallied to claim third place in the 2007 Solar Decathlon competition." The week long competition among twenty international university teams to build the most efficient, most livable and most economical solar home concluded today.

Its easy to look at the young faces of the team and ascribe their good fortune to beginners luck. Its true that Californians have always had a knack for making the best use of sunshine, but their substantial victory is well earned a foreshadow of things to come.

At the beginning of the competition, visitors were asking, "Who is Santa Clara University?" Word eventually spread, "Oh... that's Silicon Valley!"

Their odyssey to the award stand was certainly dramatic. From humble beginnings just a year ago, Santa Clara was twenty first in line for the twenty team slots. Only when another school withdrew was Santa Clara admitted.

Santa Clara University as the smallest school in the competition, fielded the smallest team. Due to multiple transportation snags, their house arrived nearly a week late. With no architecture school to draw from, Santa Clara faced a major challenge in the architecture intensive scoring. It happened that architecture was the first scored event, which landed them in eighteenth place after the first day.

But from that point on, the Santa Clara team shined. Their design included meticulous selection of advanced and renewable materials. Wall tiles made from recycled bottles and extensive use of bamboo for uses ranging from load bearing beams, cabinetry and even bedclothes. The bamboo beams showcased in the house were designed by Santa Clara University and are the first code-compliant load bearing bamboo beams in North America.

The energy balance and environmental control systems developed by the team include a solar hot water powered air conditioner and a solar panel to inverter scheme that was so clever that it was later adopted by world leading solar panel producer Sun Power as their default installation configuration. Combined with their detailed planning and game strategies, Santa Clara chalked up victory after victory, climbing from eighteenth to fourteenth, then ninth and sixth and finally to an amazing third place beside thrice-veteran University of Maryland and solar powerhouse Germany.

The spirit of entrepreneurship boils in these students. These are not the fringe "flower children" who advocated green in the past. These are the finest of engineers directing themselves to a future they see as natural and profitable. While an older generation is pining that there is no top down "Space Race" leadership to inspire innovation anymore, this generation is creating it own imperative from grass roots.

The Solar Decathlon competition has given them a spotlight to stand in for a time, but that is more for our benefit than theirs. The Santa Clara University team may be the most visible example, but the Solar Generation is forming around the World. The Solar Century they intend to build will change our world for the better, sooner than anyone from the older generations is expecting.

The 2007 Solar Decathlon

This past Sunday (9/23/07), Santa Clara University, a rising star in clean tech, shipped its entry to the International Solar Decathlon Competition to be held on the Mall in Washington DC from October 12 –20, 2007. As the sole successful entry from the West Coast of the United States, their entry represents not only the “greenest” part of our country, but the best example of the vast unreleased potential of our next generation’s focus on renewable energy.
The Solar Decathlon is a competition sponsored by the US Department of Energy bringing together twenty international university undergraduate teams to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered houses in the world. This is no science project. You might expect such an effort to result in odd looking unconventional structures typical of “house of the future” exercises, but the scoring criteria of the Solar Decathlon specifically reward entries that are livable, practical and economical as well as innovative and energy efficient.

A tour through Santa Clara's 650 sqft. interior and equally spacious outdoor deck presents an impression comparable to a high-end newlywed apartment. Meticulous attention to interior design elements make the inside bright and friendly with an open feeling that affords both privacy and accessibility. Woven into the livable layout are an endless matrix of innovations in design for efficiency.

As the name would suggest, the foundation of the Solar Decathlon home is the gathering of solar energy. So appropriately, the roof blossoms with solar electric and solar thermal collectors. Solar electric energy is either used or stored in an economical battery array while solar thermal heated water is used for hot water and also cold water and air thanks to the first residential application of solar-hot-water-powered air conditioning.

Walk up the decks and step inside to be greeted by a showcase of attractive and functional renewable materials. The walls around you are insulated with material made from recycled denim. Kitchen and bathroom tiles are made from recycled glass. The cabinets and flooring are made of easy to grow and highly renewable bamboo. Look up and you will see the first code-compliant load bearing bamboo beams in North America. Every corner of the home has a design element story that is practical today.

Remind yourself that this entire project including engineering, design, logistics, and even publicity is executed by undergraduate students. To see the energy unleashed in these students toward the goal of green building design practices is to see the future. Their goal is not to simply earn course credit. They want to show the world how this can actually be done. Santa Clara’s entry is but one of twenty in the competition. It mirrors the commitment and enthusiasm of the Class of ’08 around the World.

If you can arrange the opportunity, visit the Washington Mall in October to see the Solar Decathlon competition and immerse yourself in a preview of the excitement that will characterize this solar century.