Orange County Great Park in Irvine, California is this year’s site for the U. S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) biennial Solar Decathlon 2015 which begins Oct. 8 and runs for ten days. The “competition challenges collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency,” according to the DOE’s website.

Free and open to the public, visitors can tour the solar-powered modular homes university students from around the globe have designed and built, and gain ideas for your own home and learn how energy-saving features can be installed to save you money. Sponsors of the event are offering educational and entertaining exhibits, including clean energy companies demonstrating their technologies and products that are commercially available.

MHProNews has posted stories about several of the competitors. The University of Texas at Austin is partnering with Germany’s Technische Universitat Munchen to build a modular house that runs on water and sunshine, as we reported June 12, 2015.

The University of California-Davis was founded as an agricultural school over 100 years ago. Unlike many of the entries that are targeted to upper and upper-middle income buyers, as MHProNews posted Sept. 9, 2015, their entry is aimed at the migrant worker community.

In 2013, the Vienna University of Technology won the solar Decathlon. ##

(Photo credit: U. S. Department of Energy)

Article submitted by Matthew J. Silver to Daily Business News-MHProNews.