Solar Decathlon - Team ALOeTERRA is Ready for D.C.

After almost two years of running a marathon to build a house for the Solar Decathlon, the students and recent graduates on Team ALOeTERRA at Lawrence Tech in Southfield, Mich., spent the final month sprinting through an obstacle course to complete all the final preparations in time.

Team ALOeTERRA has designed an 800-square-foot solar-powered, energy-positive house that uses the sun to generate all the power needed for heating, cooling, lighting and appliances – with some left over to operate a small electric vehicle.

Designing and building a house that incorporates many energy-efficient features was complicated enough, but the house also has to be disassembled and transported to Washington, D.C., and then reassembled on the National Mall, where the Solar Decathlon competition will be held Oct. 12-20.

Delays along the way put Team ALOeTERRA behind schedule as it headed into the home stretch in September. Some team members have had to put in seven-day weeks and get by on only a few hours of sleep as they rushed to complete construction of the house.
The Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights and other volunteers have provided invaluable assistance.

Four times the team members had to put down their tools to give tours of the house. The final open house on Sept. 21 attracted more than 300 people of all ages interested in what can be done to reduce both energy costs and the negative impact of residential housing on the global environment.

Now the students and volunteers have switched gears again to take the house apart, this time with the help of a crane and volunteers from the Operating Engineers Local 324 Education Center in Howell, Mich.

The house will be moved in sections to Washington by Laramie Crane & Trucking of Detroit. Mobility Resource Associates (MRA) of St. Clair Shores, Mich., donated a truck for transporting additional equipment such as the PV panels.

Then the team will have to put all the pieces back together again and get everything in place in time for the start of the official competition.

It has been more work than any of the team members imagined at the beginning that seems so long ago, but the sweat, tears and even a little blood will all be worth it when they take their place in the Solar Village on the National Mall.