Solar Decathlon Solar Decathlon The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Decathlon is a collegiate competition, comprising 10 contests, that challenges student teams to design and build highly efficient and innovative buildings powered by renewable energy. The winners will be those teams that best blend design architectural and engineering excellence with innovation, market potential, building efficiency, and smart energy production. In the summer of 2018, DOE merged its two student building design competitions into one Solar Decathlon competition. The combined competition features two tracks, the Design Challenge and the Build Challenge. The Solar Decathlon provides a hands-on experience and unique training that
Solar Decathlon internationally to include competitions in Europe, China, Latin America and Caribbean, the Middle East, and Africa. Solar Decathlon Europe was established under a 2007 memorandum of understanding between the United States and Spain , which hosted competitions in 2010 and 2012. France hosted in 2014. The next Solar Decathlon Europe is planned for 2019 in Szentendre, Hungary. The Solar Decathlon China was established with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between DOE, China’s National Energy Administration, Peking University and Applied Materials on January 20, 2011.The first Solar Decathlon China took place in August 2013 in the city of Datong.