State's first 'green' house runs on its own power

Tony Grahame gets a kick out of pushing environmentally friendly home design to the limits - testing what works and discarding what doesn't to make everything fit into a tidy model.

[Christine Burke]

The Solar Decathlon involves 20 colleges and universities from around the world competing to design, build and operate a solar-powered house. The houses uses technologies like those used in Tony Grahame's house, such as geothermal heating and passive energy in addition to solar PV panels to have zero-energy consumption. The houses can also use the extra energy they produce to power an electric car and feed the grid. I am a student working on Virginia Tech's Solar House, LUMENHAUS. The Solar Decathlon is an educational project of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and is supported by DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory and event and team sponsors from the private sector. The 2009 Solar Decathlon takes place on Oct. 9-13 and 15-18 on the Mall in Washington, DC.