The United States Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm announced the winners of the 2021 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Decathlon, a competition that challenges architecture and engineering college students from around the world to design and construct high-performance buildings powered by renewable energy. 72 competing teams hailed from 12 countries and designed energy-efficient residential and commercial spaces, nine of which were constructed and presented in the Solar Decathlon Virtual Village on the National Mall, a first of its kind, in Washington, D.C.
The Solar Decathlon aims to promote student innovation, STEM education, and workforce development opportunities in the architecture and construction industry. The competition has been ongoing since 2002, and since then, more than 20,000 students have shared their innovative concepts. The Decathlon is divided into two separate challenges: The Design Challenge is a one-to-two-semester, design-only competition, while the Build Challenge is a two-year design-and-build competition.
Here is the list of the winners of the 2020 Build Challenge and 2021 Design Challenge.
2020 Build Challenge Overall Winners
1st Place: University of Colorado (Boulder, Colorado)
2nd Place: University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Ontario)
3rd Place: University of Nevada, Las Vegas (Las Vegas, Nevada)
2021 Design Challenge Grand Winners
Commercial Divisions, University of Oregon (Eugene, Oregon)
Residential Divisions, Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois)
2020 Build Challenge Contest Winners
Energy Performance
- 1st Place: Weber State University (Ogden, Utah)
- 2nd Place (tie):
- University of Colorado (Boulder, Colorado)
- University of Nevada, Las Vegas (Las Vegas, Nevada)
- 3rd Place: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana (Champaign County, Illinois)
Engineering
- 1st Place: Hogeschool Utrecht University of Applied Sciences Utrecht (Utrecht, Netherlands)
- 2nd Place: University of Colorado (Boulder, Colorado)
- 3rd Place: Weber State University (Ogden, Utah)
Financial Feasibility & Affordability
- 1st Place: University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Ontario)
- 2nd Place: University of Colorado (Boulder, Colorado)
- 3rd Place: Kansas State University (Manhattan, Kansas)
Resilience
- 1st Place: Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (Valparaíso, Chile)
- 2nd Place: University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Ontario)
- 3rd Place: University of Colorado (Boulder, Colorado)
Architecture
- 1st Place: University of Colorado (Boulder, Colorado)
- 2nd Place: Hogeschool Utrecht University of Applied Sciences Utrecht (Utrecht, Netherlands)
- 3rd Place: Kansas State University (Manhattan, Kansas)
Operations
- 1st Place: University of Nevada, Las Vegas (Las Vegas, Nevada)
- 2nd Place: University of Colorado (Boulder, Colorado)
- 3rd Place: Hogeschool Utrecht University of Applied Sciences Utrecht (Utrecht, Netherlands)
Market Potential
- 1st Place: University of Colorado (Boulder, Colorado)
- 2nd Place: Kansas State University (Manhattan, Kansas)
- 3rd Place: University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Ontario)
Comfort & Environmental Quality
- 1st Place: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana (Champaign County, Illinois)
- 2nd Place: University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Ontario)
- 3rd Place: University of Colorado (Boulder, Colorado)
Innovation
- 1st Place: University of Colorado (Boulder, Colorado)
- 2nd Place: University of Nevada, Las Vegas (Las Vegas, Nevada)
- 3rd Place (tie):
- University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Ontario)
- Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (Valparaíso, Chile)
Presentation
- 1st Place: University of Nevada, Las Vegas (Las Vegas, Nevada)
- 2nd Place: Weber State University (Ogden, Utah)
- 3rd Place: University of Colorado (Boulder, Colorado)
2021 Design Challenge Division Winners
Suburban Single-Family Housing Division
- 1st place: Ferris State University (Big Rapids, Michigan)
- 2nd place: Missouri University of Science and Technology (Rolla, Missouri)
- 3rd place: Appalachian State University (Boone, North Carolina)
Urban Single-Family Housing Division
- 1st place: Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois)
- 2nd place: The University of Arizona (Tucson, Arizona)
- 3rd place: Ball State University (Muncie, Indiana)
Attached Housing Division
- 1st place: Marywood University (Scranton, Pennsylvania)
- 2nd place: Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (Mumbai, India)
- 3rd place: Monash University (Melbourne, Australia)
Mixed-Use Multifamily Building Division
- 1st place: The University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada)
- 2nd place: The University of Arizona (Tucson, Arizona)
- 3rd place: University of Missouri-Columbia (Columbia, Missouri)
Elementary School Division
- 1st place: University of Oregon (Eugene, Oregon)
- 2nd place: Ryerson University (Toronto, Canada)
- 3rd place: Ball State University (Muncie, Indiana)
Office Building Division
- 1st place: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Blacksburg, Virginia)
- 2nd place: Ryerson University (Toronto, Canada)
- 3rd place: Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
Retail Building Division
- 1st place: Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago, Illinois)
- 2nd place: Thomas Jefferson University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
- 3rd place: Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology (India)
News via the U.S Department of Energy
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