Solar House Design Team wins Emerald

The University of Calgary’s Solar Decathlon design team is celebrating their Emerald Award win.

The Emerald Awards are given out by the Alberta Emerald Foundation to showcase environmental leadership in Alberta. At the awards ceremony in Calgary last week, the team received an Emerald Award in the Education category  for their TRTL (Technological Residence, Traditional Living) home plus a trophy and a $5,000 cash prize.

The team, which competed in the U.S Department of Energy’s 2011 Solar Decathlon (Washington, DC.) was made up of a number of different UofC faculties and over 100 students. They partnered with Native communities of Treaty 7 and major sponsor Cenovus to take on the challenge of developing sustainable housing and addressing the needs of First Nations communities. UofC was the only Canadian entry in the competition and ended up placing tenth in an international field of 19 competitors. The house was also the most popular. It logged the highest number of visitors during the competition.

The house, which was designed and built by the students now is located on the UoC campus. And the experience gained, with the $5,000 cash prize will drive the design of the next solar house for the 2013 Solar Decathlon competition.

For the new competition UofC will collaborate with SAIT and Mount Royal University. They will again go up against an international field as well as a new Canadian competitor from Queen’s University, Carleton University and Algonquin College.