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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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Being an EcoGeek is becoming ever more fashionable. And, increasingly, there are events where EcoGeek’s can gather in style. Every two years, for two weeks, a village appears on the National Mall providing a window on possibilities for a sustainable future powered by the sun. The Solar Decathlon is a biennial, ever-cool event, pitting colleges […]

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Green Roofs are becoming blase, perhaps, as design moves into living walls.  A number of the Solar Decathlon teams have incorporated some form of living wall, think garden on the walls of the house.  These walls help cool the house in the summer (reducing solar gain), water management (reduced storm water runoff as they take water […]

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One team will be named the “winner” at the Solar Decathlon.  The first two times, the University of Colorado team has claimed the honors.  At the moment, this favorite is far behind and the odds aren’t looking so hot that they will get a hat trip.  Yet … yet … this helps highlight how every […]

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Well, the Decathlon is underway, with 20 innovative teams fighting for victory as the best solar home to grace the Mall in Washington, DC.  Today, the first event was judged.  The Germans (Darmstadt) are leading the pack, with 209.206 points.  Far, far behind them, in second place, the University of Maryland with 208.872 points.  (e.g., […]

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Being an EcoGeek is becoming ever more fashionable. And, increasingly, there are events where EcoGeek’s can gather in style.  The Solar Decathlon is a bi-annual ever cool event, pitting colleges and universities across the nation in ten contests that “center on the ways we use energy in our daily lives.” The Solar Decathlon joins 20 […]

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I plan to write more about this but just to put out there.  From 12-20 Oct 2007, there will be a serious “solar village” on the Mall in Washington, DC, in a competition of 20 universities and colleges as to the best solar-powered home.   The Solar Decathlon is a seriously Energy COOL event.   

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