The Penn Stater Magazine

Solar House Finds Its Home in Pittsburgh

May 26, 2010 at 4:56 pm Amy Guyer 1 comment

Photo: Geoff Rushton ’01

The solar house that Penn State students built last fall now has a permanent home. It’s now in place at Bayer MaterialScience in Robinson Township, Pa., just outside Pittsburgh; the house was commissioned in its new location today.

Students from three colleges—Engineering, Earth and Mineral Sciences, and Arts and Architecture—built the house for the 2009 Solar Decathlon, an event in which 20 schools from across the country and around the world compete to build the best solar house. The houses in the competition were on display on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. last October. The decathlon is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Natural Fusion, Penn State’s entry, is a small building—just 800 sq. ft.—and is a solar-powered, zero-emission structure. We took some photos of the construction progress back in August, but if you want to check out the end result, you’ll have to head to the Bayer MaterialScience campus, where the building now serves as a conference center and a showcase for Bayer’s new EcoCommercial Building initiative. (Bayer helped to fund Natural Fusion and helped review its initial designs.) You can also check out a virtual tour at the team’s website.

Penn State students also entered the 2007 Solar Decathlon. That entry, MorningStar, is on display next to the Centre County Visitors Center, across from Beaver Stadium. It’s open for tours most Sundays between 1 and 4 p.m.

Amy Guyer, associate editor

Entry filed under: College of Arts and Architecture, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, College of Engineering, Undergraduate education, Undergraduate students. Tags: Bayer MaterialScience, green buildings, Morningstar, Natural Fusion, Solar Decathlon, solar energy, solar houses, U.S. Department of Energy.