Peking University, August 17, 2013: Starting from last Saturday, all the 19 solar houses built by each collegiate team have been going through the process of Decathlon. They will be judged by ten contests and the team that scores the highest in total score will be the final winner.

Scores and Standings

After three days, the Australian, Europe-US, Israel and the Chinese team SCUT are in the lead.  

According to the competition rule, the ten contests that make up the Decathlon are divided between judged contests and measured contests. Five contests are judged each by a group of three professional juries. These are architecture, engineering, communications, market viability and solar applications. The other five contests measure performance. Can the house provide all its own energy to run air conditioning, heat hot water, power a television and all lights, and a refrigerator and stove to cook meals? Teams score points for completing tasks, such as washing dishes and clothes, maintaining cool temperatures, and cooking meals.

During the first three days, only the performance based contests have been accumulating points. Today the five sets of juries will walk through the houses and judge the houses in each category. The teams must give each jury a tour of their house and answer questions. The jury members then score each house based on their professional impression and analysis through pre-reading of submittals including drawings, project manuals and making on-site visits, so teams must perform admirably as they present their houses to the juries.

Results will be given later in the week. Friday, August 9 the Communications, Engineering and Market Appeal contests results will be announced. On Sunday, August 11, the Architecture and Solar Applications and the five measured contest results will be announced just before the final overall winners are announced.

Public Visit

In the meantime, the houses are open for public view except on the judging days and close-door competition time period during other days. Since August 3, public visitors are pouring into the village, with the first day of visitors exceeding 24,000. Richard King, the director and creator of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, has been witnessing the SD China 2013 in Datong and keeping regular updates about the event. "We are happy and overwhelmed with so many people. If attendance keeps up like this, SD China will easily break all previous records from the U.S. and Europe,” he wrote in his blog.

Photo Gallery: Solar Houses