Team New Jersey’s preparation for the 2011 Solar Decathlon

Team New Jersey is looking to install the right number of photovoltaic and hydrothermal solar panels on the roof of the energy-efficient home it’s designing for the 2011 Solar Decathlon in Washington, D.C.

The team is focused on finding a balance between affordability and energy production, said team member Jen Switala, an architecture student at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Team New Jersey is composed of students from the Institute of Technology, the State University of New Jersey and Rutgers University. The team is one of 20 teams of university students from around the world designing solar homes for the fifth biennial competition to be hosted in October, 2011 by the United States Department of Energy.

There was some controversy in 2009 when Team Germany won the Solar Decathlon with a home almost completely covered in solar panels. As a result, this year’s competition organizers added judging criteria for home affordability.
Team New Jersey submitted a design to the DOE in late November that it believes will be competitive on the fronts of energy efficiency, affordability and sustainability.
“We have to run completely on our own energy,” Switala said of the home. “That’s one of the DOE criteria.”

The home the team has designed is south facing with windows stretching across the length of the southern façade and a tilted roof perfectly designed for the installation of photovoltaic solar panels.

“We’re going to find the right balance,” Switala said. “We want to have enough panels to give the home a little leeway, so it’s producing the power it needs even on cloudy or rainy days, but not so much that we have more energy than we know what to do with.”

She said it’s important for the home to be self-sustaining at all times. If it is, it will probably feed back into the grid sometimes and earn some financial rewards for the homeowners, but that’s not the point of the solar home.
The team will present judges with a digital walk-through of its design, including a construction simulation, on Dec. 21, Switala said.

Pictured: An artist's rendering of the Team New Jersey's solar home, courtesy of Team New Jersey.