SolarTexans.com

by Jessica Kelmon
Oct 10, 2007

WASHINGTON– It’s a hot, sunny afternoon when Pat Green’s song “I love Texas” erupts on the National Mall, signaling success for a bunch of University of Texas at Austin students wearing Stetson-shaped hardhats who are building a full-sized, competition-ready house.  The team is celebrating power – their solar energy is up and running.

Their project – “The Bloom House” – is intended as a solution for people who want to be environmentally friendly but not at the expense of living the good life.

David Bowers, 26, of UT said his team’s goal is to make a party house that happens to be powered by the sun, which explains why there’s an ultra-mod hot tub with attached wok grill on the deck.  A flat-screen TV still sits on the porch because none of the interior décor was done when the power came on.  But it will be.  And if there’s time, they plan to put a see-saw out back.

The team is on deadline – buildings one of 20 solar-powered houses between the Capitol and the Washington Monument for public exhibition Oct. 12 – 20 in what’s being billed as the Solar Decathlon. Despite the competition, the UT team isn’t stressed. <More…>