Solar Decathlon Patrols

Solar Decathlon (SD) is a university competition created by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2002, and nowadays extended to the whole world along different editions held in Europe, China, Middle East, Latin America and Africa. Its main objective is to educate the next generation of architects and engineers, making them and the public aware of the efficient use of energy, and promoting the development of integrated solar energy in houses.

The competition consists of designing, building and operating a prototype of energy self-sufficient housing, powered by the sun, and equipped with all of the technologies that allow maximum energy efficiency. The prototypes have to be assembled in a “Solar Village" for exhibition and they have to participate in 10 different contests that make up the Competition (a decathlon).

ITÜ Solar Team will be competing in SD Europe 2022. UPM has applied to enter the competition in SD Europe 2023. Both universities are members of EELISA Alliance and both have previous experiences in Solar Decathlon.
The activity plan is to send a student’s patrol to collaborate and to learn and gain experience with a host team. So, ITÜ SD Team will host the UPM SD Team Patrol in 2022 while competing in SDEurope 2022. UPM SD Team will host the Team Patrol from the EELISA institution entering the 2024 or subsequent editions while competing in SDEUrope 2023.

This way, the extraordinary experience gained by entering a Solar Decathlon will not only remain in the institution which competes, but will be shared by EELISA institutions by concatenating the different patrols and students teams.

Deliverables:

1. Travel plan report and agreement with host team works schedule.
2. Active patrol supporting the Solar Decathlon team during assembly works and competition.
3. Report including lessons learnt, recommendations for the next patrols and conclusions.