On the evening of Feb. 3, RISD SOLAR invited Providence families to a presentation of its solar house design in a dual effort to raise funds and educate the community. The house will be entered in the national Solar Decathlon competition this fall. With construction scheduled to begin in less than a month and the team still $200,000 shy of its projected fundraising goal of $350,000, the team was pleased to see "a really positive response" from the community, according to Fundraising Committee Chair Cristina Zancani-Tabena RISD '05.
Coordinated by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Solar Decathlon competition challenges participating teams to construct a self-sustaining, energy-efficient solar home. Houses are judged in categories ranging from "Architecture" to "Energy Balance," so teams must address both aesthetic and technical aspects in their designs. The DOE hopes the Solar Decathlon "will keep pushing the state of housing in the United States ... (as well as) advance research and development," according to Mike Wassmer of the National Renewable Energy Lab.
Calling himself a technical liaison between teams and organizers, Wassmer spoke from experience on both sides of the competition, as he was a student on the winning team of the University of Colorado at Boulder in the 2002 competition.
Wassmer outlined the DOE's specific goals, which included "improving home design and quality of life in and around the house" and "developing more beneficial ways to produce and use energy." He called the contest "the educational opportunity of a lifetime for the policymakers," emphasizing that the competition is intentionally held on the National Mall while Congress is in session. Wassmer said he personally witnessed the interest lawmakers take in the competition when he showed Boulder's design to Colorado representatives in 2002.
The contest also yields benefits for the participating students and institutions, Wassmer said. Aside from hands-on experience and technical knowledge learned, students acquire an excellent addition to their resumes. At job interviews after his own experience on the Boulder team, the Decathlon "was all prospective employers wanted to talk about," he said.
Specifically addressing the RISD design, Wassmer, who will not be on the judging panel at the competition, called RISD "an early favorite" and said the team's "drawing set was a work of art."
The scope of the competition is national, and RISD will be the only team representing Rhode Island. "We should have support from our community," Zancani-Tabena said.
RISD Adjunct Professor of Architecture Jonathan Knowles, who co-heads the project with RISD senior faculty member William Yoder, said that since the project started, about 50 students have been involved, including several Brown engineering and architecture students.
Currently, engineering students Stephen Pepe '05 and Alex Bowman '05 are representing Brown on RISD SOLAR. The two became involved through Brown's chapter of Engineers Without Borders, which Bowman founded.
The group was "looking for projects in Providence related to appropriate technology or environment," Bowman said, and RISD SOLAR "was perfect." The engineers will be "interfacing between RISD people and engineering firms" throughout the construction process, according to Bowman.
"Our expectations were far fulfilled" with regard to the community's response to the presentation, Zancani-Tabena said. She said fundraising is "a long process" and the event was just the first step in a series of steps that the team hopes will ultimately yield needed funding. Though no other similar evenings are planned for the near future, the fundraising committee will be busy over the next few weeks following up with the connections made at the event.
This week marks the third and final deadline for the team: submission to the central coordinators of its complete construction documents. Construction of the module on South Water Street is scheduled to begin in March. The team hopes to be finished before graduation in June. After a summer of exhibition to the public, the team will deconstruct the house for transport down to Washington and will begin its final construction Sept. 29, entering the final phase of a two-year long journey.
