Students Set their Sites on the Sun

A group of Calgary students is putting their dream of a more sustainable future into action.  They’re designing and building a solar home for the 2009 Solar Decathlon, a prestigious international competition intended to advance solar energy in housing.

The Solar Decathlon is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.  The Alberta Solar Decathlon team – comprising students, faculty and staff from the University of Calgary, SAIT Polytechnic and Mount Royal College (MRC) – is one of 20 international post-secondary teams headed to Washington D.C. for the competition to build and operate the most attractive, energy-efficient solar-powered house.

Photo courtesy of Ken Bendiktsen 

“It’s student led, which is one of the amazing things about it,” says team adviser Tang Lee, an architecture professor in the U of C’s Faculty of Environmental Design.  “I was honoured to work with students with the energy and maturity to pursue things beyond their regular curriculum.”

Working with materials already on the market, the team is examining new ways to handle domestic hot water heating and storage and integrate solar energy systems into the home’s architecture.  “One of the contest goals is to show the public what can be done with off-the-shelf technologies,” says project manager Matt Beck, a U of C master’s student in environmental design. “The innovations are in the way we apply those technologies.”

For example, the team is looking at space heating and cooling without the use of geothermal energy or a home foundation.  And they’re using net metering - a newer technology that measures the amount of power a solar house consumes and how much power it produces and sends back to the electrical power grid – useful information that can help utility providers make adjustments to the electricity grid based on consumer demand.

The project requires significant collaboration within and between the three Calgary post-secondary institutions.  At the U of C, architectural students are working on a sustainable design, while business students are undertaking marketing and communications and are conducting a market analysis of affordability and market potential.  Meanwhile, engineering students are addressing technical details such as the home’s electrical and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems.

MRC’s Interior Design faculty and students are creating a comfortable interior home environment.  And SAIT’s architectural technologies and trades program, which is integrating the project into its trades curriculum, is donating space for construction.

The team’s budget for the two-year project is approximately $970,000 for designing, prototyping, building and transporting the 800-square-foot house to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. But don’t let the price tag scare you.

“When you look at the marketability of such a home down the line, as economies of scale come into play, it really becomes a much more affordable option,” Beck says.  “If students can do it, builders and developers can as well.”