Solar Decathlon India Opens Registrations for Net-Zero Building Challenge 2022-23 Today

Solar Decathlon India, a Net-Zero Building Challenge for students to combat Climate change in the buildings sector, has opened registrations for its 3rd edition today. The challenge will introduce a new contest, “Embodied Carbon” to focus on understanding the carbon release that goes into producing construction materials. The participating teams will compete for 9 months for the Division Prize in 6 competition divisions: Multi-Family Housing, Single-Family Housing, Educational Building, Office Building, Community Resilience Shelter and On-site Construction Worker Housing, and will be evaluated by a jury of industry experts, culminating in an event in Bangalore.

Solar Decathlon India participants will be evaluated across 10 contests: energy performance, water performance, resilience, health and wellbeing, embodied carbon, innovation, architectural design, scalability and affordability, engineering and operation, and marketing and branding. Undergraduate or postgraduate students from any Indian institution can participate and build a team of minimum of 5 and a maximum of 15 students. Each team needs to be multidisciplinary, with at least one student from Architecture/Building Science and one in Engineering. Each team must have a faculty advisor, who mentors the team besides partnering with a developer or a client whose project they will work on. Registration fees are INR. 6000 per team.

Solar Decathlon India is conducted by the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) and the Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE) under the aegis of the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF). The 2021-22 challenge saw 99 teams competing, with 1300+ students from 109 institutions, guided by 165 faculty mentors. The 2021-22 Design Challenge Finals event also organised an Internship fair to enable young leaders find their footing in the clean energy field, with over 30 organisations offering opportunities to the participants.

Abhishek Palit, Team NAVARITIH, Office Building Division, Finalist 2020-21 Challenge said, “The Solar Decathlon India internship fair is an excellent platform that helped me in networking with people from the building sustainability industry. It helped me interact with people about the application of sustainability in real-time projects. Through the Internship fair, I got the opportunity to intern with Mahindra Lifespaces, and this experience has improved my grasp of  the challenges and introduced me to unique  solutions to design of Net Zero buildings.”

Prasad Vaidya, Director, Solar Decathlon India, said, “Solar Decathlon India’s mission is to train future generations of building professionals who can implement cutting-edge science and technology for net-zero buildings. We invite young students and real estate developers interested in working on climate change issues to participate in the 2022-23 challenge and support India’s Panchamrit goals for achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”

Stay tuned to this page for more information – hsolardecathlonindia.in/2022-23-challenge.

About Solar Decathlon India

The Solar Decathlon India is a Net-Zero Building Challenge for students from Indian institutions to learn and design net-zero-energy-water, affordable, and resilient building solutions for real, live projects to combat Climate Change through the buildings sector. Student teams develop affordable and industry-ready solutions for real projects with the help of online Self-Learning Modules and expert mentorship provided during this year-long challenge. It is a hands-on, practical, innovation-based challenge that moves the construction and real estate industry towards implementing net-zero solutions developed by students.