ODU, Hampton students finish 14th at Solar Decathlon

Team Tidewater, with students from Old Dominion University and Hampton University, finished 14th out of 19 schools in the 2011 Solar Decathlon, according to results announced Saturday in Washington.

The University of Maryland won the international competition, in which engineering and architecture students spend two years designing and building a model home powered by solar energy and run with other environmental technologies.

The Maryland house, called WaterShed, was based on a Chesapeake Bay theme and featured wetlands that ran beneath the home and filtered dirty water from the shower, sinks and drains inside. Its green roof, covered with plants, was sloped and shaped like the Bay itself.

Purdue University finished second in the competition, and a team from New Zealand was third.

"These talented students are demonstrating to consumers the wide range of energy-saving solutions that are available today to save them money on their energy bills," said Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, who announced the final scores and whose federal department sponsors the competition.

Team Tidewater, with its home designed to be a clean, green alternative for inner-city living, finished ahead of schools from China, Belgium, New Jersey, New York and Florida. But the students had hoped to do better, with many predicting they had a shot at the top prize.

"We're not in low spirits by any means," said Noel Harrison, a Hampton architecture student, by phone Saturday afternoon. "We really took to heart all the people who walked through our house and said they loved it and wanted to move in.

"And believe me, we heard those comments a lot."

All 19 homes will be on display for one more day, today, at West Potomac Park off the National Mall. They then will be broken down and returned to their campuses, where they will begin new lives.

For the Team Tidewater model, nicknamed Unit 6 Unplugged, plans call for the home to be reconstructed on the ODU campus and used as a design studio for future collaborations between ODU and Hampton University.

Mason Andrews, a Hampton University architecture professor who helped oversee the grueling process, joked when asked if she was ready to do another project when the contest again is held in two years.

"You must be kidding," she said. "A long nap seems more in order."

The team was doing well during the beginning of the competition, tied for sixth place early on, but it had a more difficult run toward the end with some of the panel that judged it on architecture, engineering and communications.

"Our students started with a very strong proposition - of bringing sustainable design to the inner city, and they carried it out with flash," Andrews said. "But I guess we failed to flash enough to impress the judges. So yes, there's some disappointment."

After two years of working long hours to reach the finals, students said Saturday they would go to a victory reception in the evening, then let their hair down.

"We may get out on the town a little bit," Harrison said with a chuckle.

It was the first time the cross-river universities had competed in the environmental contest, and they were the only Virginia schools to make the finals.

In 2002, the University of Virginia finished second in the inaugural decathlon. And last year, Virginia Tech won the first Solar Decathlon Europe, held in Spain.

Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com