Progression: Press Room - News Archive

U.S. Department of Energy Announces Selection of $168 Million in Solar Energy Projects
Solar Decathlon Competition, President Bush's Solar America Initiative Share Common Goal
Wednesday, May 9
By James McQueen

Old Westbury, N.Y. - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), sponsor of the Solar Decathlon, an international competition challenging student teams to build and operate the most energy-efficient solar-powered home, has taken another major step toward making solar energy more affordable . Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman announced in March that 13 industry-led solar technology development projects have been selected for consideration for up to $168 million in funding, subject to appropriation from Congress. In addition, the corporations selected to oversee the endeavor will contribute more than 50 percent of the total cost of these projects for a potential value of up to $357 million throughout the next three years.

The goal of these projects, which are part of President George W. Bush's Solar America Initiative (SAI), is to help significantly reduce the cost of producing and distributing solar energy. The primary objective of SAI is to make the cost of solar-generated electricity competitive with the cost of electricity generated from conventional energy sources.

That is also an objective of the Solar Decathlon. According to the competition's official Web site, "A critical outcome of the Solar Decathlon is the development and demonstration of solar-powered homes in which, by the year 2015, the whole-house levelized energy cost has been reduced to $.10 [per kilowatt hours]." Solar Decathlon teams are challenged to utilize building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) solutions that are already on the market or to develop their own BIPV technology to reduce the levelized cost of their solar homes. BIPV systems have the potential to reduce the effective cost of a photovoltaic system, such as a solar house, by reducing or eliminating the cost of the building components they replace.

New York Institute of Technology's (NYIT) 2007 Solar Decathlon team embraces the challenge and is incorporating BIPV solutions into their solar home entry, OPEN House. According to Architecture Team Leader Matt Mathosian, "BIPV is basically substituting standard building materials for photovoltaic sources. For example, instead of using glass for some of our home's windows, the team is considering using PV products."

The newly announced 13 solar energy development projects and the DOE's Solar Decathlon will both help fulfill President Bush's SAI. They will also help to spark widespread commercialization of clean solar energy, which will have a profound environmental and economic impact on the United States .

NYIT's 2007 Solar Decathlon team is proud to be part of the solution. "This is exactly why we are building a solar house,� says Mathosian. �Our team's motivation is not only to support the advancement of alternative and renewable energy solutions, but to also communicate the viability of solar technology to the public, which is essentially the goal of the SAI."

For information about NYIT's 2007 Solar Decathlon team, visit www.nyit.edu/solar, and for more about the competition, visit www.solardecathlon.org.

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Contact: Jason Selss, media relations manager, 516.686.7481 or jselss@nyit.edu.