Hampton, Va.- Team Tidewater Virginia, made up of students from Hampton and Old Dominion Universities, has been selected to compete in the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Solar Decathlon 2013. This is the second consecutive time Team Tidewater has been chosen to compete in the Solar Decathlon.

Team Tidewater consists of Hampton University (HU) architecture and engineering students and engineering students from Old Dominion University (ODU).

The Solar Decathlon is a worldwide competition between 20 teams from colleges and universities across the United States and around the world including Vienna University of Technology in Vienna, Austria and Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic. Teams will compete to build solar-powered, highly energy-efficient homes that combine affordability, consumer appeal and design excellence.

The team will create a user-friendly solar powered house that is simple to control even under the most extreme situations. Using Universal Design principles, Team Tidewater will concentrate the use of technology for purposes of empowering those with disabilities to embrace renewable power without the complexity of controls.

"Team Tidewater is excited to once again invest its creativity and talent in the Solar Decathlon," stated David Peronnet, HU assistant professor of architecture and principal investigator. "We had a great training exercise in Solar Decathlon 2011 and are prepared to finish strong in 2013. We look forward to working on the new site along-side the other teams to bring awareness of energy solutions to everyone, especially the disabled."

The concept and proposal were created in less than a month following the Solar Decathlon 2011 competition in October. The team desired to create a home that's concept was based off a tree. Their design, the Canopy House, will provide its inhabitants with an independent and safe design that goes beyond simply going green. The canopy will be a defining feature in the house.

"The project is quite an enterprise," stated Mujde Erten-Unal, associate professor of civil engineering at ODU and team advisor. "Our last entry in Solar Decathlon helped form lasting links between the Batten College of Engineering and Technology at ODU and the architecture department at Hampton University. It was a great experience, and we're happy to do it again."

The team is now in the midst of a two-year process to design, construct and test their home before reassembling them at the Solar Decathlon 2013 competition site in Orange County Great Park in Irvine, Calif. As part of the Solar Decathlon, teams compete in 10 different categories - ranging from best architecture and engineering to energy production for heating and cooling.

"As President Obama made clear in the State of the Union address this week, we need to ensure that the next generation of America's architects, engineers and entrepreneurs have the hands-on experience and training they need to lead our nation's clean energy future," said Secretary Chu in a release from the DOE. "The Solar Decathlon will unleash the ingenuity, creativity and drive from these talented students to demonstrate new ideas for how families and businesses can reduce energy use and save money with clean energy products and efficient building design."

Team Tidewater finished in 14th place in the 2011 Solar Decathlon finals in Washington, D.C. The team's experimental home, known as Unit 6 Unplugged, will soon be relocated to a permanent site at 47th Street and Killam Avenue on the ODU campus in Norfolk, Va.

#HU#