This year's Solar Decathlon winner generates enough energy to power itself and two other homes.
Its hip to be square. The German Team takes top Honers in the Solar Decathlon. The solar house is fully functional and nearly all the exterior surface is covered with solar panels. A few stylish wood panels were added for apperance.
A far cry from the Team Germany’s 2007 entry, the surPLUShome pushed the envelope in every respect, from the use of new technology to non-traditional architecture. The competition really came down to solar production and energy efficiency, with the goal of designing and building a net zero home. So it’s really no surprise that Germany was victorious, considering their very rigorous and impressive Passivhaus building standard.
The surPLUShome is a two-story cube covered with a 11.1 kW PV system with panels on the roof (single-crystal silicon), sides, and front (thin-film copper indium gallium diselenide). Inside, a single multi-functional room operates as kitchen, living, dining, bath and bedroom. Furniture is multi-purpose as well and folds away to make space when not needed. Other important design features include custom-made vacuum insulation structural panels, a boiler/heat pump system that provides hot water and warmth, and automatic louver-covered windows.
Team Germany, made up of 24 students, hails from the Technische Universität Darmstadt and achieved great marks in all of the categories, scoring a total of 908 points out of a possible 1,000. Team Illinois won 2nd place with 897 points, while Team California, favored to win earlier this week, took 3rd place with 863. Congratulations to all of these teams on their incredible projects! We hope that many of the technologies and advances in design we saw during the Decathlon will filter out into commercial and residential homes around the world.
Inhabitat Germany’s Solar Coated surPLUShome Wins Solar Decathlon! 
Upset Solar Decathlon Winner-Germany 
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