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Each of the Solar Decathlon’s 20 teams developed their own philosophy, developed within their own regional requirements and styles, and developed a sustainable home from that. Some teams aimed for the upscale market, creating visions for the Hampton beach goer or the empty nesters sipping wine in Napa Valley.  While those on the high might […]

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Team California brought to the Mall a home where life will follow the sun. The Refract House, a three room (or, dependent on weather, four counting the patio) home is laid out so that life moves through the house with the sun. One wakes in the east, as the sun enters into the bedroom, life […]

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After a long day battling for the public option, Jeff “Energy Smart” Merkley sat down with a group at the Center for American Progress (courtesy of Wonkroom’s Brad Johnson) to discuss energy and climate issues. Amid praise for the roll-out for the Kerry-Boxer climate legislation, Senator Merkley laid out a cogent and clear message that […]

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Secretary of Energy Steven Chu went to the National Mall today to visit the Solar Decathlon, with Chu’s Decathlon visit featured on the White House blog I just helped kick-off the Department of Energy’s 2009 Solar Decathlon. This is a unique student competition on the National Mall that showcases the latest energy efficiency and solar […]

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The University of Minnesota’s Solar Decathlon team‘s handout to visitors to the DOE Solar Decathlon, which opens Thursday on the Mall in Washington, DC, (which I had a chance to visit earlier today) is subtitled “A New Tradition”. Their ICON Solar House hopefully is just that, a representation and sign of “a new tradition” that […]

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Creigh Deeds’ new ad begins “Does Bob McDonnell really stand with us?” With his misogynist and regressive views, as detailed in his Liberty University thesis or McDonnell’s half-baked and truthiness-laden concepts to raid educational funds to pour concrete in an insufficient answers to Virginia’s transportation challenges to, well, many of McDonnell’s views and “proposals”, it […]

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Imagine the environmentally conscious socialite and their new cottage at the Hamptons. That is the feel that Virginia Tech’s Lumenhaus gives in their, quite simply, luminous website and presentation of their entry into the  DOE Solar Decathlon, which opens Thursday on the Mall in Washington, DC, and which I had a chance to visit earlier […]

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No, we’re not speaking about Cold Fusion, but Penn State’s entry into the DOE Solar Decathlon, which opens Friday on the Mall in Washington, DC.  Let’s take a look at some of Natural Fusion’s features from its website, which is dynamic, enabling rapid connection of concepts and approaches with the home’s physical layout.

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Simply put, it is hard to exaggerate the reasons for enthusiasm about the Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon. This is a truly Energy COOL ten day period in DC, with literally 100s (1000s?) of truly impressive people from universities around the world having a chance to show off their innovative approaches to solving real problems […]

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Somewhat hidden to most Americans (on purpose), the Bush Administration’s Executive Order 13423 was perhaps the best energy-related action taken by George W Bush. It set meaningful energy efficiency targets and created paths for more effective energy management across the federal government. Today, President Barack Obama signed an Executive Order that builds on 13423 and […]

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