Living in the American West it’s easy to see how solar energy is considered an abundant natural resource. Despite staring out my window and watching the snow fall the Front Range of Colorado averages over three hundred days of sunshine. (This of course is not one of those days.)
There is currently a competition being held in Washington, D.C., that demonstrates the potential for incorporating solar energy into future homes. The competition is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, and in their words, “The Solar Decathlon joins 20 college and university teams in a competition to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered house.”
The competition is a one-to-one scale house experiment on implementing sustainable strategies involving solar energy, and how these strategies drive the aesthetics of the house and essentially make for a healthier living environment.
Blue Architecture 