Ready, Set, Go: Solar Decathlon Europe

The Villa Solar, near the Madrid Royal Palace in the Spanish capital, became home to 17 houses Friday. The Villa will not be your average neighborhood, however. It is the stage for a highly-competitive challenge, the Solar Decathlon Europe (SDE).

The teams will be racing to see who will design and build the best house that runs only on solar energy. The competition requires winning 10 challenges, just as in the Olympic decathlon. Judging criteria includes such feats as "best architecture, exterior and interior" and "the best integration of technological components in the architecture," according to SDE director Javier Serra Maria-Tome via YahooNews!.

The US Department of Energy compiles the criteria as: affordable, attractive, easy to live in, maintains comfortable and healthy indoor environmental conditions, supplies energy to household appliances for cooking, cleaning and entertainment, provides adequate hot water and produces as much or more energy than it consumes.

The judging panel is made up of architectural and solar systems experts, while the competitors hail from 17 universities worldwide. Spain is fronting the most teams with five competitors. Two teams come from each Germany, France, the US and China. Great Britain and Finland are offering up one team each.

Each solar team was given $123,000 (100,000 euros) to start their project by the Spanish housing ministry, but using additional funds is permissible. The race began June 18 and the three energy-efficient winners will be announced on June 27.

This is the Solar Decathlon's European debut. The competition is coordinated through the US Department of Energy and has taken place in America in 2002, 2005, 2007 and 2009.

Photo by Dept of Energy Solar Decathlon via Flickr.