California Team Nabs 3rd Place in International Competition SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Santa Clara University won third place in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon competition on the National Mall, in Washington D.C. today. The long road to Washington, D.C. began nearly 18 months ago for the University’s Solar Decathlon team, and on Friday, Oct. 19, all the meticulous planning and sweat equity paid off. When the final results from this year’s Solar Decathlon were announced, SCU stood in third place out of 20 competing colleges and universities, outdistancing Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell, and two-time decathlon winner University of Colorado, Boulder. “We’re ecstatic,” said James Bickford, a senior engineering student at SCU and the project manager for the University’s solar house. “This has been an unbelievable experience for our team; competing against much bigger schools of this caliber, overcoming all kinds of obstacles and finishing in third place is quite an achievement. We’re all just overwhelmed.” This is the first year SCU has entered the biennial Solar Decathlon, an international event sponsored by the Department of Energy in which 20 student teams compete to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient house, powered exclusively by the sun. Each entry was judged on 10 different criteria and the competition included a battery of scored tests, adding up to a total of 1,200 possible points. The German Technische Universitat Darmstadt captured first place with 1,024 points. The University of Maryland followed with 999 points, and SCU’s final overall score was 979. The ten contests that make up the Solar Decathlon measure many aspects of a home’s performance and appearance. A perfect total score for all ten contests in the Solar Decathlon is 1,200 points. Of the ten contests, Communications, as well as Lighting, Comfort Zone, Appliances, Hot Water, Energy Balance, and Getting Around are each worth up to 100 points. The Architecture contest is worth up to 200 points, followed by Engineering and Market Viability, which are each worth up to 150 points and are scored subjectively. Performance is measured and points are awarded daily through the competition and the standings are updated on the Solar Decathlon website. In the individual categories, SCU earned first-place points for “Hot Water” and “Energy Balance,” and took second place in the “Communications,” “Appliances,” and “Getting Around” categories. (Getting Around involved racking up miles in a solar-powered car.) In all categories except “Architecture,” the team finished in the top 10. “This award is a testimony to the hard work of our incredible students and the support the project received from our sponsors and the university,” said Tim Healy, professor of engineering at Santa Clara University.
