Santa Clara University

Team California-composed of students from Santa Clara University and the California College of the Arts in San Francisco-is hoping for sunny skies in Washington, D.C., the week of October 8-16 when they compete in the 2009 Solar Decathlon sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. The Solar Decathlon is a competition in which 20 teams of college and university students compete to design and build a 100% solar powered house. Team California built a 800-square-foot house on campus for the competition and will ship it to D.C. on September 16.

SCU placed third in the 2007 Solar Decathlon, the first time they were chosen to be in the competition and the last time the event was held. Their impressive finish surprised observers as they beat out powerhouse teams from Carnegie Mellon University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell University, and two-time decathlon-winner University of Colorado.

The 20 teams chosen for the biennial, international competition must build homes complete with working appliances powered by solar energy, and then transport them to the National Mall. During the Competition, entries are judged in 10 categories: architecture, market viability, engineering, lighting design, communication, comfort zone, hot water, appliances, home entertainment, and net metering.

Although this year's SCU team is all new in terms of student members, they have learned lessons from SCU's first foray into the decathlon, said Tim Hight, chair and associate professor of SCU's mechanical engineering department and the faculty project manager for the team. "We are in a much better position than we were last time because of our much stronger architecture in terms of the design, and also in terms of the documentation," Hight said. "That was a big lesson from last time."

But whether or not they place in the top this year, team members already feel like winners, said SCU junior Allison Kopf, student project manager for Team California. "Obviously, everybody wants to win, but there's no prize associated with winning." The real prize she said, is knowing that "the project envelops all the aspects that we really want to learn to help change the world."

To follow the team's progress, visit www.refracthouse.com.