LOS ANGELES, CA (January 27, 2012) – U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) yesterday announced that the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) and California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have been selected to compete in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2013. A highlight of the DOE announcement is the relocation of the competition to the West Coast, more precisely, to the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, Calif.

“It’s an honor and a privilege for SCI-Arc to again join our Caltech partners and the U.S. Department of Energy in re-imagining the sociology of contemporary housing, the use of alternative fuels, and the application of innovative construction technologies,” says SCI-Arc Director Eric Owen Moss. “Our team is looking forward to exhibiting and discussing conclusions with competitors and the American public in 2013.”

SCI-Arc and Caltech will leverage their existing, strong partnership—which led to the creation of CHIP, the team’s popular entry in Solar Decathlon 2011—to once again gather some of the brightest architecture and engineering minds to design and build the solar house of the future for the 2013 competition. Students from the two schools will now begin a two-year process to design, construct and test their homes before reassembling them at the Solar Decathlon 2013 competition’s new site.

The team's existing design, CHIP, is currently on view at the California Science Center at Exposition Park in downtown Los Angeles. Read more.

In fall 2013, solar decathletes will showcase their solar-powered homes at the competition’s new Orange County location, highlighting renewable energy systems and energy-efficient technologies, products and appliances.

“The SCI-Arc/Caltech Team is thrilled to be selected once again into the Solar Decathlon,” says SCI-Arc/Caltech project manager Reed Finlay, who previously led the 2011 team. “We’re looking forward to new competitors, a new site, and a brand-new approach to solar housing. “We can't wait to show the world what we have up our sleeve this time.”

The full list of teams for Solar Decathlon 2013 can be found HERE.

Follow the progress of Solar Decathlon 2013 on sciarc.edu, Facebook and Twitter.