Creative Energy Homes

Students at the School of the Built Environment are currently designing plans to build Nottingham House, a self-sufficient zero carbon solar-powered home which will compete in the final of the first European Solar Decathlon Competition.

The Nottingham team's entry is sponsored by Saint-Gobain and will be constructed using approved Saint-Gobain products and materials. Working in partnership with Saint-Gobain the house will be designed and built in the UK.

The house will be one of 20 to be reassembled and exhibited alongside designs by other universities from the USA, Brazil, China, Mexico, Germany, Finland, Israel, France and Spain in the final phase of the European Solar Decathlon Competition in Madrid in June 2010.

In the competition final, each house will be connected to the grid and undergo different tests in 10 specific areas: architecture, engineering and construction, solar systems, electrical energy balance, comfort conditions, appliances, communication and social awareness, industrialisation and market value, innovation and sustainability.

The prestigious International Solar Decathlon competition has been running in the USA since 2002.
More information can be found at: Solar Decathlon 2010.