Aug. 30, 2002--Members of the University community and the public are invited to tour the recently completed solar house on Delaware Avenue, next to the Composites Center, beginning at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 3. Designed and built by UD students, the house is the University’s entry in the 2002 Solar Decathlon, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, in Washington, D.C., beginning Sept. 20.

One of 14 entries in the decathlon, the house was designed to use solar power to run every aspect of the 500-square-foot home. Students were responsible for its lighting, refrigeration, comfort and design and livability.

After months of work, the house will be taken apart beginning the third week in September and transported to the Mall in Washington where a solar village will be erected by all competing colleges and universities. The house will be re-constructed there by Sept. 25. An opening ceremony for the solar village will be held Sept. 26, and the systems of all the houses will be tested in competition Sept. 27-Oct. 5. The winning entry will be announced on Oct. 5.

On Oct. 6, the house will be disassembled and moved to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Eventually it will return to UD and become a permanent part of the campus. Plans call for it to be used here as an undergraduate hands-on teaching lab, a community solar power education facility and a recruitment tool.

The Sept. 3 tours begin at 1 p.m. following a brief ceremony to mark the occasion with President David P. Roselle, Brian Bushweller of Sen. Tom Carper’s office and student and faculty team leaders.