There are many museums lining the mall in Washington D.C. These museums focus on history. For the past two weeks a museum of the future was placed on the mall as the Solar Decathlon competition took place. It was a village like no other – twenty student designed and built solar homes all striving to drive further development and acceptance of energy and resource efficiency and solar power.
Two years ago I attended the Solar Decathlon and was amazed at how well the students understood the entire sustainability spectrum – it wasn’t just a solar competition, but a whole system design contest where even the impact of raw materials selection was comprehended by the teams. This year several of the teams focused on affordability as well – even though they didn’t earn many points for this effort in the official competition. Throwing money at a problem is not necessarily a solution. Throwing sharp minds from a cross section of the university seems to result in a better, more affordable solution.
So why can teams of inexperienced students manage to accomplish what most in the homebuilding industry cannot? There are many areas to blame – builders who build for minimum first cost instead of minimum operating cost; appraisers who don’t know how to value energy efficiency; consumers who don’t consider operating costs. The students simply designed to a higher standard. Significantly raising our standards for buildings and appliances would go a long way. When we set the high jump bar low, there is not much incentive for everyone to jump higher. Raise the bar for everyone and let the good designers / builders figure out how to meet the standards affordably. That’s the spirit of innovation that filled the museums along the mall.
Spend a few minutes at www.solardecathlon.org. You can look at photos, virtual tours, specs, and plans for all of the houses. At one point I strolled across the street into the Museum of Natural History and looked at the Hope Diamond. It was impressive but the real sparkling gems were those student designed and built homes. Those give me hope. The efforts of these students will quickly turn that museum of the future into the museum of the present.
Paul Westbrook
Sustainable Development Manager, SMTS, LEED AP
Original publication date: 10/20/2009
