Organized by the Ministry of Housing in collaboration with the Technical University of Madrid, and with the support of the United States Department of Energy, Solar Decathlon Europe will include teams from 17 universities representing 7 countries.

The groups will build real houses that are sustainable, self-sufficient and comfortable, powered exclusively by solar energy.

Solar Decathlon is a prestigious international competition that awards a prize for the best solar home built in the world. This fifth edition (the others took place in 2002, 2005, 2007 and 2009) is the first to be located outside of the US. Solar Decathlon Europe 2010 will take place in Madrid from June 17th to the 27th in the Villa Solar, encompassing 30,000 m2, and located in the Madrid Rio area between the Royal Palace and the Manzanares River.

During the event, 17 solar homes will be monitored daily and subjected to ten tests–hence, decathlon–which will be evaluated by 18 prestigious international juries. In these tests, a total of 1,000 points will be divided among 5 areas: architecture (200), solar (200), comfort (240), social economy (160) and strategy (200). The winner of the last event was the University of Darmstadt (Germany).

The solar homes will be constructed by 17 university teams from institutions in 7 countries: from France will be the Arts et Métiers Paris Tech and the Ecole National Supérieure d’architecture de Grenoble; from Germany, Fachhochschule fur Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences and the University of Applied Sciences Rosenheim; from the United States, the University of Florida and Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University; from England the University of Nottingham; from China Tongji University and Tianjin University; from Finland Aalto University; and from Spain, Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera, Instituto de Arquitectura Avanzada de Cataluña, Universidad de Sevilla, Universidad de Valladolid and Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña.