Current status of Solar Decathlon
homes featured on DOE website

Since competing in 2007's Solar Decathlon in Washington D.C., Texas A&M's award-winning entry in the solar-powered home design and build contest, the Aggie GroHome, has been on display at the Bush Presidential Library and Museum and is now the centerpiece of a sustainable education and research facility in San Antonio.
                                                                                   
Its travels are chronicled in "Where Are the Solar Decathlon 2007 Houses Now," on the U.S. Department of Energy website.

Texas A&M's entry, renamed "SU CASA," now serves as a demonstration and hands-on teaching tool at the Alamo City's Mission Verde Center @ Cooper, a multipurpose education, training and research center for renewable and energy-efficient technologies, water management and conservation.

"Thanks to a vision larger than one house, one school or one competition, the Texas A&M Solar Decathlon 2007 team succeeded in making a contribution to the sustainable future of its community," states the Solar Decathlon website.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s tallied statistics on the fate of the Solar Decathlon's sustainable homes:

1. 24 are used for ongoing university research and outreach on campus,
2. 17 serve as private residences for families and students,
3. 15 now host the public as educational exhibits extolling the benefits of renewable energy and energy efficiency,
4. 7 are used for business and meeting spaces, and
5. Four are for sale.

To see what's happened to the "Class of 2007" solar-powered homes since the competition, visit http://www.solardecathlon.gov/past/2007/where_now.cfm.

At the decathlon, the Aggie GroHome garnered first place honors from the American Institute of Architecture Students and the American Institute of Architects’ Committee on the Environment, winning the Student Choice Award. The home also took top honors in the Student Building Category in the Lifecycle Building Challenge sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency at the 2007 West Coast Green Conference in San Francisco.

After the Solar Decathlon, and before coming to rest in San Antonio, the home was moved in the spring of 2008 to the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, where thousands of visitors got a firsthand view of its innovations.

- Posted: Nov. 18, 2010 -

Contact:   Phillip Rollfing, prollfing@archone.tamu.edu or 979.458.0442.