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Solar-Powered Home Shines at Decathlon

HBN's Enable
Kitchen and dining area of the Northwestern team’s Enable competition house in Denver. Photo by Dennis Schroeder/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon.

After nearly a year and a half of planning, market research and construction, Northwestern’s student-designed solar home, Enable, competed in the Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon 2017 in early October in Denver. The annual collegiate competition challenges teams to build a full-size solar-powered home in hopes of winning a $300,000 grand prize.

The teams were judged in 10 different contests that scored everything from energy efficiency and architectural design to comfort and communications.

The House by Northwestern team’s entry, targeted to Baby Boomers living on Chicago’s North Shore, won first place for market potential, first place for communications and third place for engineering. It was also voted “Super Awesome House” by the middle school students of Colorado. Northwestern finished sixth overall in the 11-team competition. The Swiss team, representing four institutions, finished first.

Proving Enable’s market potential, Evanston resident Jerry Brennan is purchasing the solar-powered house, which he’ll place on his lot in north Evanston and open occasionally to Northwestern educational programs.

Team members used focus groups, in-home visits and sociolinguistic analyses to determine the market. “The clientele told us what they really were looking for in a house you would age in,” says Jay Walsh, Northwestern’s vice president for research. “We wanted to design a house that fit that demographic, and we nailed it.”

Financial support from the University, corporate sponsors and other donors made the finished product possible.

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