Rice Solar Decathlon House on National Mall [Photo Eric Hester, darnart.com]
Students from Rice University are putting the final touches on their entry for the 2009 Solar Decathlon. I spoke with one of the lead student designers, David Dewane, to get an update.
RM: What’s it like putting a house together on the National Mall with Lincoln staring down at you?
DD: It’s pretty exciting because you do it 24-7. You are there [on the Mall] in the middle of the night, when the moon is rising, when the sun is rising. A lot of energy. A lot of public wandering by who are curious and excited. You are symbolically in the middle of the country.
RM: Tell me about working next to other teams?
DD: In the design process, we tried to make the house easily constructible. The last week was a good proof of concept. We designed it to go together fast. And it did. We had the smallest assembly team – 9. The second smallest was 19. Teams were as large as 40. It took us about two days counting an 8-hour crane delay. The team next to us has 20,000 pieces to put together. They are going nuts. We had a very, very simple assembly.
Unloading of materials for the 2009 Solar Decathlon, Photo Christof Spieler
RM: It’s essentially a trailer house.
DD: A little bit. You have to drop it off. It doesn’t have wheels. All the conditioned spaces are continuous and are already assembled. We don’t have to worry about weather sealing. We just had to worry about landscaping features – decks, the solar array. It was very relaxing compared to what we saw other teams going through. It was fun. A riot.
RM: Any damage from the transportation?
DD: The plants were a little stressed but fine. The house itself – not one crack in the dry wall.
RM: Past winners have been in the 400K range and look fancier than the Rice entry, which was designed to be less than 100k not counting the solar arrays. Do you think the collapse of the global financial system and the Great Recession have improved the chances of the entry winning?
DD: The last winning house was about 1,000,000 euros. The one before was about 400K and before that about 280K.
Photo by Eric Hester, darnart.com
I counted [the Rice entry for 2009] out a long time ago. The most important thing isn’t getting the trophy, it is promoting solar energy. We are not twenty teams but twenty members of the same team promoting solar energy. It is good for some teams to promote affordability. It is good for some teams to push the technological development as far as it can go. Affordability is just the angle we took.
RM: It is a good year to be the affordable one.
DD: It’s a good year to be the affordable team. That’s not going to matter as much to the jury as it does to the 120,000 people who walk through. Those are the people we are trying to communicate the message to that solar energy is really accessible.
RM: Are you hoping to give a personal tour to Barack Obama?
DD: I’d love it. I don’t know if he’ll come around. They haven’t said anything. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu is coming to do the opening ceremony.
RM: Thanks for taking time out of your packed schedule. Anything you want to add.
There’s just such a great energy right now. A lot of camaraderie. People are proud of the hard work they have put in over the past two years. It is the culmination of a lot of hard work.
Read David's OffCite post---$olar $avings: Are Affordable Solar Powered Houses Possible?---for additional background.
