The National Mall in Washington, D.C., will once again be transformed into a solar village when it hosts the 2007 Solar Decathlon, scheduled to take place Oct. 12 to 20. The Decathlon, which is held every other year, is a competition in which 20 teams of college and university students design, build and operate energy-efficient, cutting-edge houses that must operate solely on solar power.

Teams from such institutions as MIT, Penn State, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Colorado and Texas A&M, as well as international schools such as Technische Universitat Darmstadt in Germany and Universidad Politecnica de Madrid in Spain will participate in 10 contests to determine a winner. The contests focus on such areas as architecture, engineering, market viability, appliances, hot water, lighting and energy balance. In addition, the homes must be attractive and easy to live in, and must power an electric vehicle to meet household transportation needs. The winner will be announced on Friday, Oct. 19.

The event is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory as a way to raise public awareness about renewable energy and to help move solar energy technologies to the marketplace faster. The team houses are open for public tours on most days of the event. To learn more about the Decathlon and view an event schedule, visit http://www.solardecathlon.org or call 1-800-dial-DOE.