Teams from Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Arizona are the 2022 design challenge grand prize winners in the U.S. Department of Energy’s 20th annual Solar Decathlon.
A collegiate competition engaging 40,000 students worldwide to design and build sustainable buildings, Solar Decathlon includes a design challenge and build challenge, an April 25 news release said.
“For 20 years, DOE’s Solar Decathlon has harnessed the ingenuity and enthusiasm of America’s students to generate cutting-edge climate solutions,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in the release. “The innovative building designs developed by this year’s competitors demonstrate how clean energy technologies can be applied to households across the country, including slashing costs for American families, modernizing energy infrastructure and decarbonizing the building sector."
The Georgia Tech team won the residential grand prize for designing a plan to retrofit a neglected, 102-year-old house in Atlanta, Ga., “with materials that naturally absorb carbon.” The University of Arizona team won the commercial grand prize for designing a multifamily building “that serves low-income and multigenerational families” by using organic photovoltaic panels to shade the building.
Fourteen teams in the build challenge component of the Solar Decathlon each won $50,000 “to build and exhibit their ground-breaking, zero-energy buildings in their home communities next spring.”
