Stanford University
IN-1: Innovation 1

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon is a biennial competition challenging students from twenty collegiate teams all around the world to design, build, and operate solar-powered net-zero homes. Teams are judged on ten contests ranging from juried contests like Architecture and Engineering to measured contests like Comfort Zone and Energy Balance. Since 2002, the Decathlon has demonstrated to the public and the home-building industry that solar homes can be affordable, attractive, and comfortable to live in, while also providing a once-in-a-lifetime educational opportunity for young designers and engineers entering the workforce to gain hands-on experience in an interdisciplinary learning environment. In November of 2011, a small group of Stanford students submitted the very first proposal for Stanford University to compete in the 2013 Solar Decathlon. In January of 2012, Team Stanford was selected as one of twenty teams, including four California teams, two Canadian teams, and two European teams, to officially compete. For its sixth iteration, the 2013 Decathlon moved from the National Mall in Washington D.C. to the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, CA. After two years of design, engineering, fundraising, and construction, Team Stanford delivered its competition entry, titled Start.Home, to the Great Park and competed from October 3rd-13th, finishing in fifth place overall. The Start.Home was then reassembled at the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, to replace the ranger’s residence and eventually transition to housing for long-term visiting researchers and scholars.

The project team raised over $1.2 million in cash, in-kind, and service contributions and included over 125 undergraduate, graduate, and PhD students over the course of two years, along with participation by over twenty faculty and staff and thirty departments, programs, and university groups. In addition, the project team actively engaged in outreach opportunities and media exposure, leading to a community reach of over 23,400 individuals and over forty unique publications ranging from print and radio to online and nationally televised news coverage. The Start.Home team not only constructed one of the most affordable (1st place award) and marketable (3rd place award) homes in the competition with a unique vision for a Core module that resonated with a national audience, but it also created a legacy of building innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and project-based learning that will inspire future Stanford Solar Decathlon entries in years to come. Please visit the following website for more information: http://solardecathlon.stanford.edu/2013/10/1st-place-in-affordability-3rd-place-in-market-appeal/