Lauren Gallow: Thinking back to your experience with Solar Decathlon in undergrad, are there a few memories that stand out?
Clay Anderson: What makes the Solar Decathlon program so unique and special is it gives young architects and designers a chance to design and build as a team, which is unique in design school. It also allows them to get something built and test ideas, which, in school, you don't always get the opportunity to make and build and test and fail at full scale.
LG: What exactly is Solar Decathlon?
CA: Solar Decathlon is an annual competition hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy that challenges student teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered homes. For students, it can be that first foray into working with a team of people that you’ve never had the chance to collaborate with before. When I participated with Team Florida back in 2010, our Solar Decathlon team consisted of students from the building construction school, the architecture school, and marketing.
Nowadays it’s more common, but when I was a student, a lot of the goals of the U.S. Department of Energy were promoting the future of electric technology. That was 2010, so a lot of those things we were doing in Solar Decathlon are now more commonplace, such as PVs, thin film solar cells, efficient appliances, early heat pump cooling and heating systems, and pushing thermal envelope and material innovation. For me, it was fun as a student to research and feel like anything was possible while collaborating with a smart team of thinkers and builders.
LG: It sounds like Solar Decathlon set you up to see what the future of these technologies could be and how you could integrate them into your projects.
CA: Definitely. What was really interesting about the European version of the competition that we participated in was all, of a sudden, you got to see what Germany was up to. Many teams were really innovative and used algae-treated wastewater and organic photovoltaics, which was new to me at the time. Another team was sponsored by Bosch and it was really one of those moments where you're like, wow, these people have it going on. Seeing European technology on that scale and the funding they had for it, it was eye-opening. I went to school in Florida, so it was also interesting to see how the vernacular of the Floridian ‘dog trot’ architecture translated to our competition, versus seeing how a Scandinavian or German country might take on the challenge. There was also a lot of pointed criticism from the jurors of the event my year, which was interesting.
LG: What do you mean?
CA: Well, Glenn Murcutt was one of the jurors of our competition, and his comment was that it was problematic to bring from the U.S. the idea of a single family residence to a European context, where there is so much more density. His critique was that we've got to deal with housing at a much denser scale. And actually, seeing Atticus Floquet’s story in this issue about UW’s recent competition entry, it seems like it led to teams taking more of a multifamily approach to their entries. So it’s interesting to see how the competition has evolved based on the challenges we’re facing in housing, both energy-wise and in terms of density.
LG: Knowing all that, what do you think is the value in a competition like Solar Decathlon?
CA: I think it's about allowing for testing and a little bit of failure, knowing that those failures can actually sometimes produce a more interesting result. It's the learning aspect that sets Solar Decathlon apart, and I think it creates a space for the next group of practitioners to come into the profession and have a headstart on thinking in a more professional, team-oriented way.
Regionally, we’ve obviously got a great design community here, so it’s about encouraging students in this competition to test something they can bring back to the Northwest which will have an impact here. You could use this competition to keep pushing the boundaries of efficiency when it comes to things like working with the city of Seattle and the ever-changing energy codes.
Could Solar Decathlon be an incubator where you keep tooling with different responses and solutions? Are there opportunities to build more partnerships locally so that these tests can continue to evolve and not just wipe the slate clean every year with a new group of students?
Ultimately, I think the value for students is to get their hands dirty and work and test things. Obviously the research side of all of this is important, but combining the research with the participation and the design is what really leads to the richness of a competition like this.
In the building construction sciences, there is an advantage to focusing on advanced sustainability competitions. There is an even bigger advantage when that competition involves multidisciplinary students working at an international level. Centering on the hypothetical design of carbon-neutral and zero-energy projects, the Solar Decathlon competition seeks to make global connections between students and professionals, while engaging in fun, competitive, and difficult problems that many active professionals are engaged with in their day-to-day projects.
With the aim of inclusivity, Max Stafford, a Materials Science and Engineering student, started a local chapter of this group at the University of Washington in 2023. Stafford was inspired by a Department of Energy Solar Technologies individual to start the first energy and sustainability competition-based club at the university, and currently, it’s the only Solar Decathlon group in the state of Washington. Stafford has been supported in his efforts by Robert Peña, a professor at the University of Washington who teaches advanced sustainability disciplines.
Peña himself was previously involved with the Solar Decathlon competition series. “I was one of three co-faculty leaders of Cal Poly’s entry to the Solar Decathlon in 2005,” says Peña. “The project took three years to design, build, and fundraise, but the reward was its impact on student learning, growth, and professional futures. Over three years we folded the program into several courses that touched hundreds of students.”
But what exactly is the Solar Decathlon competition, and what are the real-world impacts of this competition series? Launched in 2002, The US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon collegiate build competition was designed to prepare the next generation of building professionals to design and build high-performance constructs – low-carbon buildings powered by renewable energies. The Solar Decathlon’s purpose is to provide unique and engaging training for all students preparing to enter clean energy practices in the real world, educating the students and public on the latest technologies and materials within zero energy design, dedicated to smart home solutions and high-performance buildings. It continued into a biennial competition series from 2005-2024 and added what it calls the Race to Zero design competition in 2019 that has been running annually as its main design challenge since then.
The UW team has a unique approach, which can add a whole lot more to the learning experience. Inclusivity and research are dynamic aspects of this club, with certain leads in the group focusing on researching new forms of sustainability. Stafford has gone so far as to organize an entire event slated for Earth Day 2025, gaining the participation of many sustainability clubs on campus, and even reaching out to special keynote speakers who would speak on topics of sustainability.
Furthermore, Stafford and some of the leads are starting the groundwork of connecting to other universities in Washington state to build connections, intending to start more Solar Decathlon groups to join the competition series. More clubs means more collaborative work between the different schools, adding additional layers for inclusivity and community building across the state. While currently, the competition entails submitting projects via drawings and renders, there are plans to physically build competition projects as a way to teach and grow sustainability practices. Having the participation of a wider range of schools across the state could mean more opportunities to bring much needed sustainable developments into communities that would benefit most from such interventions.
When it comes to the club’s inclusivity, it's not necessarily a matter of who is thought of as a good fit. Instead, Stafford aspires to promote the idea that every discipline can be involved with sustainability. “Through this club, we are creating a pipeline for students to learn how to contribute to sustainability in their everyday lives, and that makes it valuable,” says Stafford.
Since its inception, Solar Decathlon has impacted the lives of 40,000 students worldwide, many of whom have progressed into the fields of architecture, engineering, and several other built environment professions. The most recent top honors winners of the 2024 design challenge were the students of The University of Arizona in partnership with the Hopi Tribe with their design of 24 eco-friendly rowhouses incorporated with a microgrid to promote energy sovereignty for the surrounding community. To Peña, “The Solar Decathlon primarily benefits the students who participate. It provides a hands-on learning opportunity that exercises many dimensions of growth and learning. It is a way to take classroom learning into practical application.”
Washington state has unique challenges when it comes to net-zero energy and carbon-neutral designs. The process becomes ever more challenging as a result of Washington’s weather patterns and consistent gray clouds, making using solar-based renewable energies something to carefully consider. However, we do have buildings like the Bullitt Center in Capitol Hill designed by The Miller Hull Partnership, which has a 56,000-gallon water collection system which is used to filter and disinfect rainwater, and an impressive array of photovoltaic panels that can generate around 230,000-kilowatt hours a year from sunlight.
With the Bullitt Center standing as proof that solar energy is applicable in our region, the question of researching new and innovative ways to harness renewable energies in Washington can still be brought to the table in the Solar Decathlon at the University of Washington. To do that, Stafford wants to focus “specifically in building research and building science. Through planting this seed and growing it, we are capturing students' interests that were currently unprovided.”
Since this branch of Solar Decathlon is new, expansion and integration of other divisions are vital to the growth and development of the club. “I do not want to tell a student that we can't help them with their goals because we are not big enough as a club,” says Stafford. “Everyone should have a chance to join the clean energy workforce, regardless of major.”
The UW team participated in the 2024 design competition with a single-family housing design set in Elma, Washington, a small town roughly 30 miles West of Olympia with a population of about 3,500. The town of Elma has some key considerations – a high earthquake risk, high precipitation making it prone to flooding, and many residents who are in low-income statuses.
The idea behind the Elma Residence was to produce a cost- and energy-efficient building utilizing as much solar energy as possible in the overall design. It provided flood mitigation by raising its base and incorporating a flood level, while also having rigid construction phasing so that construction would start when there was less chance of rainfall, with an incorporated rainwater collection strategy to further the positive environmental aspects of the design. To be economical, it was designed to cost about $260,000 out of a budget of $300,000 with an estimated yearly energy cost of roughly $781.14, making daily energy usage about $2.14.
Major environmental considerations were also designed for, such as using local reclaimed redwood siding that acts as a natural fire resistor, orienting the building to have views of the natural landscape, and allowing sunlight to power and light the building as much as possible. Accessibility conscientious design aspects, like allowing wheelchair accessibility for any potential user, were also incorporated. To maximize the energy efficiency of the project, a Mitsubishi heat pump was tailored to the location's needs. A heat recovery ventilation system was implemented, and solar panels were incorporated with an off-grid battery storage system that’s used when sunlight isn’t prominent, in conjunction with high-efficiency wall and insulation systems to obfuscate leaks in the building's entire envelope. These tactics help maximize comfort, energy production, and storage, and highlight the site's natural beauty.
Overall, the initial entry for the Solar Decathlon competition by the University of Washington students demonstrates a thoughtful start to the university’s foray into the competition, adapting to the climate, environment, and population of the chosen site. As the university’s involvement and investment in Solar Decathlon continues to grow, it will be a way for communities around Washington to connect and learn about new and impactful advancements in sustainable design.
