Santa Clara University, home to 300 days of sunshine a year and infused with the innovative spirit of Silicon Valley, is proud to be selected as a competitor in the 2007 Solar Decathlon.

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy has joined forces with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and challenged twenty universities around the world to design and construct an energy-efficient and aesthetically-pleasing home for competition on the National Mall in Washington D.C. Only one catch: we must use solar energy alone to power our dwelling through the demands of daily living.

Solely Solar - The Ripple Effect

The Solar Decathlon is a competition of ideas in action, a vision for the future, and a collective challenge to students, universities, and communities to lead the move toward powering sustainable lives with clean and healthy energy. By building a technologically dynamic home that is completely energy-independent - one step toward a lighter ecological footprint - the undergraduate students of Santa Clara University are embarking on a journey to educate about sustainability from the bottom up: from the youth to those in positions of influence, from the smallest school of engineering to the technology industry giants, from Santa Clara University to you.

By becoming leaders in green-living we hope to inspire and educate our peers, our community, our business and government leaders and our world. We call it the ripple effect. Welcome to the Ripple Home.



Power for Life

When we finish construction, we will load our house onto a truck and ship it 2,000 miles across the country to the National Mall in Washington, DC, where we will join the other teams to form a fully operational, albeit competitive, "solar village." Together we will shine as a beacon for a bright future in clean energy that can no longer be considered "alternative."

Santa Clara University is the only team from the West Coast. If anyone understands sun power... it's us



Come join us from October 12-20th on the National Mall in Washington D.C. as we make history representing the Golden State.