University of Arizona Students Take Top Prize in 2024 Solar Decathlon
WASHINGTON — A student team from the University of Arizona bested 40 other finalist teams from around the world, taking home the grand winner trophy in this year’s Solar Decathlon Design Challenge overseen by the U.S. Department of Energy.
The winning project in this, the DOE’s longest-running student competition, was a project undertaken in partnership with the Hopi Tribe on 24 eco-friendly rowhouses integrating passive design techniques and a microgrid to promote energy sovereignty for the community.
The University of Arizona also won in the Attached Housing Division, alongside Georgia Institute of Technology for the Single-Family Housing Division, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay for the Multifamily Building Division and Southeast University & Tibet University for the Education Building Division.
The Solar Decathlon aims to challenge the next generation of building professionals to design high-performance, low-carbon buildings powered by renewable energy, promoting student innovation, STEM education and workforce development opportunities in the buildings industry.
This year, more than 250 students from the 40 finalist teams participated in the hybrid competition event hosted at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, between April 19 and 21.
“For 22 years, the Solar Decathlon has been preparing students to lead the clean energy transition,” said Building Technologies Office Director Mandy Mahoney in a written statement.
“I was inspired by this year’s teams and their inclusive vision for the spaces in which we live, learn, work and play, including transformative designs for affordable housing and vulnerable communities,” Mahoney said.
Since 2002, more than 40,000 students worldwide have participated in the Solar Decathlon’s 10 contests.
Many of them have moved on to become leading architects, engineer, and other professions in the buildings industry.
The 2024 Design Challenge Winners Were:
Grand Winner:
The University of Arizona—Tucson, Arizona (Attached Housing)
Single-Family Housing Division
1st Place, Georgia Institute of Technology—Atlanta, Georgia
2nd Place, The University of British Columbia Okanagan—Kelowna, British Columbia & Thompson Rivers University—Kamloops, British Columbia
3rd Place, Wentworth Institute of Technology—Boston, Massachusetts
Attached Housing Division
1st Place, The University of Arizona—Tucson, Arizona
2nd Place, Oklahoma State University—Stillwater, Oklahoma
3rd Place, The University of British Columbia—Vancouver, British Columbia
Multifamily Building Division
1st Place, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay—Mumbai, India
2nd Place, The University of Arizona—Tucson, Arizona
3rd Place, University of Missouri—Columbia, Missouri
Education Building Division
1st Place, Southeast University—Nanjing, China & Tibet University—Lhasa, China
2nd Place, University of Oregon—Eugene, Oregon
3rd Place, Tehran University of Art—Tehran, Iran
Solar Decathlon Faculty and Alumni Awards
Each year, the Solar Decathlon selects an outstanding faculty advisor and competition alumni for their contributions to the transition to a clean energy economy.
The Solar Decathlon 2024 Faculty and Alumni Award winners are:
Lisa D. Iulo, associate professor of architecture at The Pennsylvania State University, won the Solar Decathlon 2024 Faculty Award.
Iulo has served as a team advisor for nine consecutive Solar Decathlon Design Challenges and two Build Challenge competitions (2007 and 2009) on the National Mall.
Iulo also developed two Solar Decathlon-related courses that connected students with local communities to work on real-world projects that benefit people and the environment.
Pete Choquette, founder and principal of real estate development firm Solsbury Hill and sister design firm Centripetal Works, won the Solar Decathlon 2024 Alumni Award.
Choquette was on the winning Georgia Institute of Technology team in the 2022 Design Challenge.
Since graduating from Georgia Tech, he has continued to work as a liaison between the university’s faculty and students, the university’s Energy Policy and Innovation Center and West Side Atlanta neighborhood stakeholders to implement the project.
Additionally, he is assisting in the effort to create a community design center that would provide design and building science-related services to these underserved communities and scale up his Solar Decathlon team’s innovative and replicable project model.
Applications for the Solar Decathlon 2025 Design Challenge will open this summer. Additional details about the competition may be found on the Solar Decathlon website.
Dan can be reached at [email protected] and at https://twitter.com/DanMcCue
