Great Park Site for Solar Decathlon 2013

The University of Maryland collegiate team took first place overall in the 2011 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon competition in Washington, D.C. for their design/build solar-powered house. For more information on the 2013 competition (it?EUR??,,????'???s a biennial event), visit www.solardecathlon.gov. Photo: Stefano Paltera/ U.S. DOE Solar Decathlon.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced Solar Decathlon 2013 will take place October 3 through October 13, 2013 at the Orange County Great Park in El Toro, Calif.

The Solar Decathlon challenges collegiate teams to design, build and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient and attractive. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency.

The competition houses will be open to the public for eight days?EUR??,,????'??+Oct. 3-6 and Oct. 10-13, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. It will showcase 20 highly efficient, solar-powered houses in a specially constructed solar village at the Orange County Great Park.

The Solar Decathlon is a biennial event launched in 2002. The Great Park was selected as the site for the Solar Decathlon 2013 through a national competition. This will be the first time that the event has been held outside of Washington, D.C.

The Orange County Great Park, with its 1,347-acre master plan, is the focal point of the redevelopment of the publicly-owned portion of the 4,700-acre former Marine Corps Air Station in El Toro.

Twenty university teams have been selected to participate in Solar Decathlon 2013, including several west coast universities: USC, Stanford, California Institute of Technology, Santa Clara University, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Arizona State University and the University of New Mexico.