Momentum - The Magazine for Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering Vol. 3 No. 4 Winter 2018 | Page 9

Virginia Tech builds world's best solar house
After years of research and development
contributed by over 100 Virginia Tech
students and faculty, the FutureHAUS Dubai
team has officially built the world’s best solar
home.
The lone American team earned a first-
place victory over 14 other selected teams
and more than 60 total entrants of the 2018
Solar Decathlon Middle East, a competition
launched by the United States Department of
Energy and the United Arab Emirates’ Dubai
Electricity & Water Authority. The global
competition aimed to accelerate research on
building sustainable, grid-connected, solar
homes.
The win follows nearly two decades of
research and two years of accelerated de-
velopment, overcoming a fire that burned
down a previous iteration of the house, and
more than a month spent in a desert in the
outskirts of Dubai, where two dozen stu-
dents and faculty erected the entire house.
The concept of FutureHAUS Dubai was
brought to life through a university-wide
effort, combining talents and research from
Virginia Tech’s College of Architecture and
Urban Studies, College of Engineering, My-
ers-Lawson School of Construction, Pamplin
College of Business, College of Liberal Arts
and Human Sciences, College of Science, and
various centers and labs within.
Read Erica Corder's full article here.
https://www.facebook.com/FutureHAUSdubai/vid-
eos/539738579823921/?t=0
Behkam
MOMENTUM
FALL 2018
PAGE 9