For Immediate Release: Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2007

News Bureau 21000 West Ten Mile Road Southfield, MI 48075-1058 Contact: Eric Pope, (248) 204-2210, (313) 505-6508 (cell) or [email protected] #16-07

Lawrence Tech holds open houses for Solar Decathlon house

Southfield, Mich. -- Students and recent graduates of Lawrence Technological University are rushing to complete construction on their solar-powered, energy-positive house in time for the Solar Decathlon competition on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in October.

They have designed and built a house with nearly 700 square feet of living space that will use the sun to generate all the power needed for heating, cooling, lighting and appliances – with some left over to operate a small electric vehicle.

Two open houses supported by NextEnergy, a nonprofit that promotes the development of alternative energy technology in Michigan, will be held Friday, Sept. 14, and Friday, Sept. 21, from 4:30-8 p.m. at Lawrence Tech’s campus, 21000 West Ten Mile Road in Southfield.

Shortly thereafter, the house will be taken apart, shipped to Washington and then reassembled for the Oct. 12-20 Solar Decathlon competition sponsored by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which is part of the U.S. Department of Energy.

“The team at Lawrence Tech has built a quality sustainable home that is both economical and earth- friendly. The thinking that went into this structure is frankly astounding,” said NextEnergy President and CEO Jim Croce. “This is an amazing achievement for this internationally recognized student competition and is further evidence of Lawrence Tech’s academic strength in the alternative energy sector.”

Lawrence Tech’s Solar Decathlon team has also received major sponsorship contributions from Denso International, Masco Corporation Foundation and the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights.

The field of 20 Solar Decathlon competitors includes teams from MIT, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Germany, Spain, Canada and Puerto Rico. Lawrence Tech is the smallest university in the competition and the only one from Michigan. The Lawrence Tech team took the name ALOeTERRA, which means to nourish the earth. More than 40 students have been involved in the project, and a core of 16 students and recent graduates put in very long hours over the summer to build the house they designed.

Faculty advisor Philip Plowright, an assistant professor of architecture, said the students have taken advantage of construction products that are already available to the public.

“This is not the house of the future. It is the house of now,” Plowright said. “We are using well-vetted products and technology, and the focus has been on keeping it simple. As a team, we made a conscious decision not to go for the wow factor.”

The primary source of energy for hot water and heating is an array of evacuated tubes that has a payback period of about two years. That system can store a day’s worth of hot water.

All of the home’s electricity will come from photovoltaic (PV) panels that cover much of the roof. When sunlight isn’t available, the home’s battery system will meet all the home’s energy needs, including a backup for the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system.

The other half of the self-sustainability equation is a reduction in the amount of energy required. Very few American households are taking advantage of some of the construction strategies used by the Lawrence Tech team to reduce energy consumption.

“We want our house to be a stage for educating homebuyers about the possibilities for dramatically decreasing the carbon footprint of their homes,” said Christina Span, a member of Team ALOeTERRA. “Making homes more energy-efficient is the single biggest thing we can do as a country to reduce our country’s energy consumption and reliance on foreign oil.”

For information about Lawrence Tech’s Team ALOeTERRA, go to solar.ltu.edu. For information about the Solar Decathlon competition, go to www.solardecathlon.org.

Lawrence Technological University, www.ltu.edu, offers more than 60 undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral degree programs in Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Engineering, and Management. Founded in 1932, the 5,000-student, private university pioneered evening classes 75 years ago, and today has a growing number of weekend and online programs. Lawrence Tech’s 102- acre campus is in Southfield, with education centers in Livonia, Clinton Township, Traverse City, and Petoskey. Lawrence Tech also offers programs with partner universities in Canada, Mexico, Europe, and Asia.

NextEnergy, located in Detroit’s TechTown on the Wayne State University campus, is Michigan’s alternative energy accelerator, a nonprofit founded to enable the commercialization of energy technologies that positively contribute to the nation’s economic competitiveness, energy security and the environment. For more information about NextEnergy, contact Mark Beyer at (313) 833-0100 or visit nextenergy.org.