Opine away.  Pine away.  Pin away?

That’s in ‘honor’ of the dreadful NY Times special section on energy.

While I was looking for a cartoon of the day, I found this photo-shopped version of the above cartoon at the Oil Drum with an alternative ending that is, sadly, all too true as of the last election:

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“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 Saturday before an excited audience that packed the main tent in the solar village.” The WaterShed house won by combining affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency. Purdue University took second place in the competition, and New Zealand (Victoria University of Wellington) received the third-place award.

University of Maryland President Wallace Loh offered the winning team his heartfelt congratulations:

The innovation, creativity, skill, vision, cooperation, determination, and, yes, energy displayed by this team is both remarkable and a joy. I couldn’t be more proud of their work and accomplishment. These students, faculty and mentors have dedicated themselves to addressing critical needs of Maryland, the nation, and other countries. They’re the perfect example of what a public research university is all about.

After nearly 100,000 votes were cast, Appalachian State University won the Solar Decathlon People’s Choice Award for its Solar Homestead house. This award gives the public the opportunity to vote for its favorite house. This year, 92,538 votes were cast. Appalachian State also won second place in the Communications Contest and third place in the Architecture Contest. Appalachian State University is located in Boone, North Carolina.

Our guest blogger is A. Siegel, of Get Energy Smart Now. The Solar Decathlon is running on Potomac Park off the National Mall until Oct. 2.

In the fifth Department of Energy Solar Decathlon in Washington, DC, 19 university teams are competing to build the best solar-powered house in 10 categories, each for 100 points, for a total of 1000 points. As with an Olympic Decathlon, the overall winner might actually not win any of the categories but simply be a top performer across all of them. The winning house:

— Is affordable, attractive, and easy to live in
– Maintains comfortable and healthy indoor environmental conditions
– Supplies energy to household appliances for cooking, cleaning, and entertainment
– Provides adequate hot water
– Produces as much or more energy than it consumes.

These are the 10 Solar Decathlon 2011 contests: the first five are judged by expert juries: Architecture, Market Appeal, Engineering, Communications, and Affordability. The second five are quantitatively measured: Comfort Zone, Hot Water, Appliances, Home Entertainment, and the all-important Energy Balance.

The most significant competition change from the past is the creating of a cost category which emphasizes affordability.

While cost considerations were part of “marketability” in the past competitions, this was not necessarily a serious element. One team discussed with me in 2009 how they had worked hard to have an audited cost estimate and then discovered that only a few other teams had made similar efforts. Whether correct or not, they were frustrated that, in their perspective, this was not a serious element of the competition analysis. This new category might well have driven the teams into designs that will be marketable at scale.

The 2011 Solar Decathlon Competitors

– The Solar Homestead, Appalachian State University

– TRTL – Technological Residence, Traditional Living, University of Calgary, Canada

– perFORM[D]ance House, Florida International University

– Re_home, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

– WaterShed, University of Maryland

– Self-Reliance, Middlebury College

– First Light, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

– enCORE, Ohio State University

– Empowerhouse, Parsons the New School for Design and Stevens Institute of Technology

– INhome, Purdue University

– CHIP, The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-ARCH) and California Institute of Technology (CALTECH)

– E-Cube, Team Belgium, Ghent University

– Y Container, Team China

– FLeX House, Team Florida (The University of South Florida, Florida State University, The University of Central Florida, and The University of Florida)

– 4D Home, Team Massachusetts (Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell)

– Solar Roofpod, Team New York (City College of New York)

– ENJOY House, Team New Jersey (State University of New Jersey and the New Jersey Institute of Technology)

– Living Light, University of Tennessee

– Unit 6 Unplugged, Tidewater Virginia (Old Dominion University and Hampton University)

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Our guest blogger is A. Siegel, of Get Energy Smart Now. The Solar Decathlon is running on Potomac Park off the National Mall until October 2. Tomorrow, ThinkProgress Green will present A. Siegel’s full guide to the 19 teams competing in the Solar Decathlon.

One of the nation’s most important intercollegiate competitions has just opened in Washington, DC: the biennial Solar Decathlon. For two weeks, 19 university teams from around the globe put up solar-powered demonstration homes that compete across the decathlon’s ten categories, including the functionality of the house (for example, for household tasks like washing dishes and cooking dinner), measured performance items (how much electricity does the house produce), and perception items that can’t be tangibly measured (aesthetic design quality). The houses are open to the public, and team members are on hand to discuss the architecture and technology that underlie these visions of a clean green future that is available today. Here’s the Department of Energy’s preview:

Each year, the Solar Decathlon is awaited by many, including this author, with much anticipation and bated breath. After years of work, the homes were assembled at Potomac Park off the National Mall and opened to the public this past weekend. In preparation for visiting the homes, here are some general observations:

The Solar Decathlon is a serious competition. The Solar Decathlon has truly transformed. A decade ago, it took only a few moments to sort out which teams would be on top and which weren’t in the same caliber. Even just two years ago, while every single house had elements meriting praise, sorting “top” from “bottom” wasn’t that difficult. (My ‘top five’ prediction, in terms of team composition, was off by one in 2009 as I expected the Spanish team to compete with the German team for #1 rather than placing 14th …) This year, looking at the teams and having visited the site, I believe that the judges, happily, face much more difficult challenges in ‘juried’ elements and can’t predict how the teams will sort out in measured performance. This competition is wide open with what look to be 19 tremendous houses and teams putting their finishing touches on their homes prior to opening doors to the public in just a few days.

Marketable Solar Homes. It is easy to see every single one of these homes commercialized. Every single one looks to be (very) livable, attractive homes that fit some form of market niche. This has not necessarily been true, despite team aspirations otherwise, in the past. The 2011 Solar Decathlon’s emphasize on affordability hopefully has driven the teams to truly cost-sensible solutions. If so, might this be the Solar Decathlon where a team emerges (or teams emerge) with a meaningful path toward producing large numbers of their house (or derivatives of it)?

The Solar Decathlon Appeals to All Ages. While I will provide some of my reactions to the houses, my seven and ten year old children’s comments will appear in a few. The Solar Decathlon, in part, provides an exciting vision for a path toward a sustainable and prosperous climate-friendly future. This excitement is shared, in my experience, by the vast majority who get there — of all ages. As a window on this, my seven-year old chose to watch the team videos (rather than asking to watch TV). And, she watched them … every single one … and when my better 95+% came in, my daughter had team videos that she wanted to show her mother, highlighting specific features that she thought her mom would love. And, well, “beautiful … can we buy that … that is really cool …” were the types of phrases coming out of her mouth, in wonder, in over an hour of watching (not all at once). And, well, my ten-year old son ended up doing much the same thing the next morning. And, they can’t wait to visit The Solar Decathlon to see the homes. As a parent, this joy, wonder, attention to detail, and intellectual interest (more my son) were a real pleasure to experience. As someone concerned about our energy reality and seeking to help foster a better path forward, this youthful passion and enthusiasm was an encouraging note.