Yesterday, April 8, 2021, it took place at the Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest, the Faculty of Installations Engineering, the headquarters of the EFdeN team from Blvd. Pache Protopopescu, no. 66, District 2, Bucharest, the press conference for the official announcement of the qualification of Bucharest as a host city of the Solar Decathlon Europe competition in 2023 - the largest international competition of solar houses, organized for more than two decades globally to promote solar technology and sustainability in construction.
The organizing team is formed by EFdeN and ENERGY ENDEAVOR FOUNDATION (EEF), joined by the Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests, the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization, the Ministry of Energy and ENGIE Romania to address together the climate challenges and respond to them from the technological innovation in sustainable construction perspective. The qualification was received with enthusiasm and confidence both by the judging team chosen by the members of EEF, as well as by the representatives of the academic, public and private environment in Romania.
"This time the national team made up of young researchers, students with vision and will, it is as important as any national team that manages to bring such a competition to Romania" - Barna Tánczos - Minister of Environment, Waters and Forests
“We agreed from the outset to support Romania's candidacy in 2023 for organizing the Solar Decathlon competition. Romania must be part of this revolution of sustainable constructions that also involves energy efficiency and prosumers. " - Virgil Daniel Popescu, Minister of Energy
“We will have to learn this partnership step by step; learn to fund such initiatives, to be grateful to those who put us in highly exposed, positive positions in the world, and we should be proud to have such initiatives. This is the basis that can take us in the coming years, to the first places in terms of the technologies of the future,and on the other hand to strengthen the entrepreneurship that should be the foundation of an economy. “- Ciprian Teleman - Minister of Research, Innovation and Digitization.
“The organization of the world competition, here in Romania, is an extraordinary success that comes as a result of a construction that started in 2010 and is due to all students from the Romanian teams who have achieved an extraordinary performance. They learned to work together, to design and build, to relate to the market, to the sponsors and they managed to build a huge trust capital at an international level. ” - Prof. univ. dr. eng. Radu VĂCĂREANU, rector of the Technical University of Constructions Bucharest.
"This project has taught 2 very important things: teamwork and expressing individual performance. Every moment of these people's activity is research, and the power of this project is given by practice, which demonstrates and proves the viability of research, innovation, imagination and also the results of the years of learning of each participant in this competition. " - Prof. Dr. Arch. Georgică Mitrache, Pro-Rector of the Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism
“We share the joy of the event planners to see that an international competition that brings energy sustainability in the spotlights, is hosted by Romania. We have been supporting EFdeN since 2015 as we have the same vision for the future, and participating in Solar Decathlon is an opportunity to stimulate innovation and the competition of ideas on topics of interest such as passive housing, the use of green energy sources, energy efficiency solutions and, smart home. ” - Cristian Buzan, Executive Vice President ENGIE Romania.
“We are absolutely delighted that Romania occupies its rightful place in the tradition of the Solar Decathlon Europe competition. So here we are, together, offering continuity and drive to this approach of youth in energy education and responsibility for the use of resources. The organizers of SDE23 in Bucharest are the expression of the team spirit specific to this competition and demonstrate, through work and devotion, that we can be the lead in achieving a real and lasting change. ” - Louise Holloway, Energy Endeavor Foundation Director
Prior to the designation of the Bucharest team as a organizer, teams of university students (known in the competition as Decathletes) participated in 4 of the 5 editions of Solar Decathlon Europe (SDE), starting with PRISPA at SDE12, Madrid, Spain, EFdeN at SDE14 , Versailles, France, Over4 at the SDE19 edition, Szentendre, Hungary and with the qualified EFdeN team at the SDE21 edition, Wuppertal, Germany. 10 years later, with the continuous support of the Technical University of Constructions Bucharest, the “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism and with an impressive support from the Romanian private environment, EFdeN and ENERGY ENDEAVOR FOUNDATION (EEF) won the project competition, having the honor and responsibility to organize the 6th European edition of the Solar Decathlon in Bucharest, in September 2023.
For the organization of Solar Decathlon Europe 2023 in Bucharest, almost 20 teams of students are expected in each edition of SDE, eager to change the landscape of the European built environment with one adapted to current challenges. In the competition, for 2 years, the teams prepare for the final phase of 2 weeks of actual competition, in which they compete, as in the athletic decline, in 10 events. Students organized themselves multidisciplinary teams, so they can design and built with their own hands the prototype with witch they enter in the competitions. During the 2 years of training, study equipment works as companies with departments that cover all the skills needed to market a product, from design and construction to marketing and communication. The tests to which these teams are subjected include architecture, integration in the built environment, engineering, innovation, sustainability, but also viability for the economic markets for which these constructions are intended.
Launched in 2002 by the US Department of Energy, the Solar Decathlon competition challenged technical universities and student teams around the world to design, build and commission prototypes of efficient and innovative buildings using renewable energy sources. Since 2002, the competition has grown and expanded worldwide, becoming the main international "design & build" event in the field of sustainable construction, with editions on 5 continents and in 10 countries. Since 2017, the Energy Endeavor Foundation is the organization under whose auspices the European editions of the Solar Decathlon are organized, ensuring continuity from edition to edition.
Based on the original US model, Solar Decathlon Europe was born in 2010 and has evolved in a direction well adapted to the European built environment, encouraging pan-European professionalism and keeping the international spirit. EEF enjoys the right to ensure continuity and aims for the new editions of the competition to respect the values consolidated in more than two decades of activity. The EEF thus facilitates initiatives to connect academia and research with industry and governance structures, in order to optimize the resources we use in construction.