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Members of the CU Solar Decathlon team accept the winning trophy in October 2005. Pictured from left to right are architecture undergraduates James Dixon and Jake Uhl, civil engineering graduate students Abby Watrous and Scott Horowitz, and architecture undergraduates Geoff Berlin and Ryan Drumm.

CU Solar Decathlon Team Prepares for 2007 Competition

It seems like only a short time ago that CU won its second consecutive Solar Decathlon trophy, but CU students and faculty are already making preparations for their 2007 contest entry. Three years went by between the first two competitions sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, but the next competition is now less than two years away.

The DOE announced in January that CU will be one of 20 teams competing in fall 2007. Each team will be awarded $100,000 over two years to support the Solar Decathlon's research goal of reducing the cost of solar-powered homes and advancing solar technology, but they must do additional fund-raising as well.

The 2007 CU team will again be headed by Michael Brandemuehl, associate professor of civil, environmental, and architectural engineering.

"We have three main objectives," Brandemuehl says. "One is to develop a design and systems that are relevant to the production homebuilders so that we really get it into the market. The second is to focus on building integrated solar systems, and the third is to focus on the American West, to have a design that represents Colorado when we go to Washington, D.C."

Specific dates for the competition, which is held on the National Mall, have not yet been set.

http://solar.colorado.edu