Solar Decathlon 2005-PV System Strategies and Results

The 2005 Solar Decathlon, an 18-team international collegiate competition of solar-powered homes, was held on the National Mall, Washington, D.C., in October 2005. For the teams, accomplishing the energy-consuming tasks required by the 10-contest competition and public event was quite challenging during the particular week of the competition owing to unseasonably cloudy and rainy weather. While no team had designed for as little solar radiation as was available during those five competition days, successful teams employed a combination of technical acumen and savvy strategy to accumulate the most points in the contests scored by objective measurements. (Some contests were scored subjectively by judges.) Following are a description of the competition, a description of the solar power systems used by entries in the Solar Decathlon, a summary of how the teams operated the PV systems in their homes, and an assessment of how the homes actually performed in the measured contests during the 2005 competition. The potential for operation of non-Solar Decathlon households with PV systems employing battery backup during periods of grid outage and limited solar resource is also discussed