The Penn Stater Magazine

Another Solar House in the Works

February 1, 2009 at 2:41 pm Tina Hay 2 comments

I was driving by the stadium this afternoon, and Penn State’s student-built solar house caught my eye—it looked picturesque, in its quirky boxy way,  against the white snow and the blue sky. So I pulled into the parking lot of the Centre County visitors’ center and took a few shots. The solar house, called the MorningStar and located right next to the visitors’ center (across from the stadium and the Ag Arena), was built for the 2007 Solar Decathlon, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. Students from schools all over the country built solar houses and displayed them on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.; Penn State’s entry placed an impressive fourth.

Now the house is back at Penn State and on more-or-less permanent display. Supposedly it’s “open for drop-in tours from 1 to 4 p.m. most Sundays,” but no one seemed to be around when I was there. (No doubt they were out at Wegman’s, stocking up on snacks for the Super Bowl.)

Visitors to the MorningStar solar house check out the sliding exterior shelves on the south-facing windows, designed to regulate solar gain.

Penn State is planning to enter the Solar Decathlon again this year, and students from three colleges—Engineering, Earth and Mineral Sciences, and Arts and Architecture—are working on this year’s entry, which will be called Natural Fusion. No word yet on where on campus the physical construction will take place.

You can learn more about Penn State’s 2009 Solar Decathlon project here and about Penn State Center for Sustainability here.

Tina Hay, editor

Entry filed under: College of Arts and Architecture, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, College of Engineering, University Park campus. Tags: alternative energy, Center for Sustainability, Solar Decathlon, solar energy, solar house.