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NEWS MEDIA CONTACTS: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Mike Waldron, 202/586-4940 Thursday, June 9, 2005

Tom Welch, 202/586-5806

LOCAL MEDIA CONTACTS:

Christopher Powers, 303/275-4742

John Horst, 303/275-4709

Energy Department Announces Second Solar Decathlon

*Competition to be held October 7-16, 2005 in Washington, DC*

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that
18 teams from the United States, Canada and Spain will travel to
Washington, DC on October 7-16, 2005 to participate in the second solar
decathlon competition to be held on the National Mall. The solar
decathlon presents cutting edge architecture, engineering, and
technology all of which can all be applied in building homes to generate
their own energy, not simply consume it.

"These future engineers and architects are some of the brightest in the
world. The innovative technologies the students will present demonstrate
that the widespread use of renewable energy to power our homes may be
closer than we may think," U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman
said.

The first-ever Solar Decathlon in 2002 featured examples of ingenuity
such as homes with translucent walls that provide light and insulation,
solar heated fluid flowing under floors to provide warmth, and fiber
optic cables attached to solar collectors to transmit light into a home.
This year's competition will once again employ a wide-range of
innovative technologies to demonstrate the tremendous possibility of
solar power and other renewable energy sources.

The Solar Decathlon teams will compete to see who can build and operate
the best designed and energy-efficient solar-powered home. For two
years, the teams worked on the design, research and testing necessary to
construct and power these homes. Late this summer, the homes will be
shipped to Washington, DC where they will comprise a "solar village."
The public can tour the homes and take away valuable information about
where to find these resources and how to apply them to their exiting
homes or ones they will build.

The teams will compete in 10
[contests](http://www.eere.energy.gov/solar_decathlon/contests_scoring.html)
that will judge architecture, livability, comfort, and power generation
for heating and cooling, water heating, and powering lights and
appliances. Each solar house must also power an electric car.

The colleges and universities competing in the 2005 Solar Decathlon are:

California Polytechnic State University

Carnegie Mellon, University of Pittsburgh, Art Institute of Pittsburgh

Concordia University and the Université de Montréal

Cornell University

Crowder College

Florida International University

New York Institute of Technology

Rhode Island School of Design

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

University of Colorado -- Denver and Boulder

University of Maryland

University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

University of Michigan

University of Missouri -- Rolla and the Rolla Technical Institute

Universidad de Puerto Rico

University of Texas at Austin

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Washington State University

The primary sponsor of the Solar Decathlon is DOE's Office of Energy
Efficiency and Renewable Energy, with its National Renewable Energy
Laboratory and private-sector sponsors the American Institute of
Architects, the National Association of Home Builders, BP, the DIY
Network and Sprint. For more information, go to
[[www.solardecathlon.org]{.underline}](http://www.solardecathlon.org/).

Editor's Note & Media Contact:

Reporters and photographers are invited to track the Solar Decathlon
teams' progress between now and the October event on the National Mall.
To schedule interviews with DOE officials, student contestants, and
competition sponsors, or to witness the various phases of construction
and transportation of the houses, please contact Betsy Stephenson at
Dittus Communications:
[[betsy.stephenson@dittus.com]{.underline}](mailto:betsy.stephenson@dittus.com)
or 202/715-1503.

-DOE-

R-05-132