COUR TESY OF SANTA CLARA’S 2007 DECATHLON TEAM
Above, members of the Solar Decathlon 2007
Santa Clara team pose for a photo in front of
their competition house. Team leader James
Bickford is shown on the far left. Left, this
photo, taken underneath Santa Clara University’s truck, shows how badly the axles bent
under the weight of the team’s Solar Decathlon
house. Despite arriving late to the competition,
the house took third place.
ing the standings with two days to go, and we
realized we had a chance for top ;ve if we corrected our energy-use strategy.
Our new goal was to use all the energy we
could to win points on performance-based competitions ; i.e., washing clothes, heating and
cooling, cooking and driving the electric vehicle
; but maintain net zero over the course of the
week so we would be awarded all 100 points for
energy balance. I think we came the closest to
net zero of all the teams. We edged Penn State
out because we had the strategy to stay energy
positive until the last day.
Fortunately for us, the last day was cloudy
and the solar systems didn’t produce enough
electricity for Penn State to recharge their batteries enough to get back up to zero. ;erefore,
Penn State was slightly negative and received
only 84 points for energy balance. I think if you
look at it, we edged them out by the amount of
energy it takes to run a light bulb for an hour
or two.
RICHARD: What have you been doing
since graduation?
JAMES: Seven members of the team and I
started a company called Valence Energy. One
of the sponsors of our Solar Decathlon house
invested in our company. We are working on a
new technology that networks and controls distributed-generation assets with building automation systems. Our goal is to create a single
platform for energy management and analytics
and optimize the performance of buildings.
RICHARD: Do you consider the Solar
Decathlon helpful in preparing for what you’re
doing now?
JAMES: ;e decathlon was one of the greatest learning tools of my college experience. ;e
hands-on nature and responsibility inherent
in the project were great tools for teaching
multi-disciplinary collaboration, technology
development, marketing development and so
many other things. I really felt the project was
like starting a company. We had a business
team, an engineering team, a marketing team,
a logistics team, a fundraising team, a product
to deliver and a competition to win.
I am also a founding commi;ee member
European Decathlon
Kicks O; in June
At the time of this writing, I had just returned from Madrid, Spain, where
I attended a workshop for the 20 international teams participating in the new
European Solar Decathlon. The Spanish
Ministry of Housing is hosting the first
European Solar Decathlon in Madrid in
June 2010. Universities from 10 countries
are involved: Spain, Germany, France,
England, Finland, Israel, Brazil, Mexico,
China and the United States. Virginia
Tech and the University of Florida are
representing the United States.
The designs are as varied as the countries themselves, many reflecting the cultural and architectural influences found
within their borders. The beauty is that
they will all be powering their houses
from the same sunlight.
With the new European competition,
40 university teams from 11 countries
now compete on two continents.
The Solar Decathlon Europe will be
held June 18–27, 2010. For information,
visit sdeurope.org. ; RICHARD J. KING
Looking Ahead to 2011
Teams interested in participating in the
2011 U.S. Department of Energy Solar
Decathlon should keep in mind the
following dates:
RFP issue date: On or before Aug. 18
Issue location: Solar Decathlon website,
solardecathlon.org
Proposal due date: Nov. 17
Noti;cation date: Dec. 18
of the Solar Decathlon Alumni Organization. From this experience I can say that I
am not the only person who feels so strongly
about the decathlon ; in fact, I know of at
least four companies that the Solar Decathlon
has generated.
RICHARD: Do you have any insight into
the new Santa Clara University e;ort, now
called “Team California” because they have
teamed with the California College of Arts?
What are they doing di;erently this year?
JAMES: Two keys to their strategy this year
have been to link up with a school of architecture and to ;nd a be;er truck! Taking 18th
place in architecture made it very di;cult
to beat the University of Darmstadt and the
University of Maryland, which won ;rst and
second place, respectively. So Santa Clara University is teaming with the California College
of Arts. And while the truck breaking down
made a great story that will one day have to
become a book … I don’t think they need to
go through that stress again! ST
