Maryland Students Wait for Results of Solar Decathlon

Patch writer Mike Bock visited the Solar Decathlon in Washington Thursday, a competition to find the best solar-powered house among 20 entries by college teams. Below, Bock shares his impression of the University of Maryland’s entry, the WaterShed, and some of the competition. 

Maryland students certainly built an impressive house, but winning this year’s isn’t a sure thing.

The WaterShed house, along with 19 other futuristic houses, is the University of Maryland’s entry in this year’s Solar Decathlon, a competition to see which collegiate team can build the most affordable, energy-efficient and attractive home.

Ten separate variables are considered, including architecture, cost, engineering and energy balance. A panel that includes high-ranking officials from the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Science and Technology judges some of the contests.

As of the end of the day Thursday, Maryland was leading the overall competition, but it looked like they are facing stiff competition. The Terps failed to place in the top three in the engineering competition, which was won by Team New Zealand (Victoria University of Wellington).

They seemed thrilled about the victory, one team member joking, “So, when are we buying our ticket to Disneyland?”

As the day came to a close, Maryland’s team seemed weary but excited about the final days of competition. Associate Professor of Engineering Keith Herold, who helped advise the team, described the mood as “cautiously optimistic.”

After a quick tour of the house, it doesn’t look like they have too much to worry about. The house is crammed full of futuristic, energy-efficient devices, like the liquid desiccant cooling system and solar heating tubes.

And that’s just the inside.

, WaterShed seemed to have a leg up on most of the competition. Team China (Tongji University) may have been a bit too practical, building its home out of recycled shipping containers; this gave the house a futuristic-but-not-quite-in-a-good-way vibe that reminded me too much of a '50s sci-fi movie. On the other end of the spectrum, Team Belgium (Ghent University) built a house that looks like a giant refrigerator.

Whatever the end result of the competition is, Maryland students seem like they will be taking it in stride.

“Everyone’s been working really hard,” said Isabel Enerson, a junior environmental science and technology major.

“If they earned it, they earned it.”

The winner of the competition will be announced Sunday, Oct. 2.