First Photos From the European Solar Decathlon

An anonymous reader writes "The 2010 Solar Decathlon Europe kicked off today in Madrid, Spain, with a stunning array of solar-powered prefab homes. Seventeen teams from around the globe are battling it out in the center of the city to see who has the most efficient solar-powered and eco-friendly house. Just as in the competition in Washington DC, the teams will be graded on minimal energy use, innovative architecture and engineering, sustainability, and more. Check out these exclusive photos from the event for a first look at the most exciting houses in this year's competition."

Comments

medal count

[PopeRatzo]

The 2010 Solar Decathlon Europe kicked off today in Madrid

How did the US house do in the solar pole vault?

Decathlon

[Itninja]

So why is this called a decathlon? I cannot figure that out from TFA. Are there like 10 different types of solar energy they are going for here?

Re:Decathlon

[cappp]

It's a little hard to find on their website but each team competes in 10 areas hence, decathalon. You can find the details here http://www.sdeurope.org/competicion_pruebas_menu.htm?lang=en but in short they're judged on:

architecture, construction and engineering, solar systems and hot water, energy balance, comfort conditions, usage, communications and social media, industrialization and market viability, innovation, sustainability

Judge a marathon based on 100 yards in the middle?

[Rogerborg]

You want to know which design is more efficient? You need to monitor the mining, refining, shipping, construction and maintenance for the next 20+ years (or until we have fusion power, which largely moots the problem). Judging efficiency based on a sample of a couple of days is like measuring tails and extrapolating that cats and elephants must be about the same size.

Major Solar Energy Marketing Campaign in Progress?

[Hadlock]

A few days ago my buddy emailed me with some infographic about "how few" solar panels it would take to power the entire planet. Now this. I'll agree there's money to be made in Solar, and it's green(ish), but has anyone else noticed just a huge marketing push in the last few weeks for solar? I guess it makes more sense to market solar energy during the summer (in the northern hemisphere) but why now? It's convenient that the BP oil spill is happening now, but this sort of thing takes lots of perpetration, time and money. I'm guessing it's in response to the Cape Wind project finally being approved? Anyone have any more info on why NOW they're doing such a large marketing push for solar? Is wind that big of a threat to solar?
 
It's interesting that they're doing this in Spain, where wind support is popular and has long had government support, with several large installations already.

Re:Major Solar Energy Marketing Campaign in Progre

[drinkypoo]

Anyone have any more info on why NOW they're doing such a large marketing push for solar? Is wind that big of a threat to solar?

It's obvious that it's all about the BP spill. People are saying "what can we do to stop this from happening again?" The best answer is "stop offshore drilling" but it's not realistic unless we reduce our dependence on oil.

Re:Judge a marathon based on 100 yards in the midd

[elashish14]

I'm sorry. Maybe they should just scrap the competition then. It's clearly a total waste and provides no true innovation or inspiration for its corporate sponsors and/or onlookers.

Anytime a scientific story gets posted to slashdot, what annoys me most is when commentors take on the annoying stance of impatiently asking why it isn't functional immediately. It's ridiculous. So I suppose all modern inventions were developed overnight. The first computers were core i7's, right? It's not like we ever started out with punch-cards or anything like that.

Sure, this won't give us an understanding of whether the entire production process for a solar economy is feasible. Let's look at it this way: if we didn't have competitions like this, why would we ever even bother asking?