STUDENT-BUILT GREEN HOME ON WAY TO COMPETITION IN WASHINGTON

It was quite the spectacle.

For six months, members of Team Tidewater, the joint Old Dominion University/Hampton University student team in the 2011 Solar Decathlon finals, have been lovingly constructing their experimental home on the ODU campus across the street from the Student Recreation Center.

Then in a few hours on Thursday morning, the home, known as Unit 6 Unplugged, was gone. A giant crane lifted the pieces of the modular house onto flatbed trucks. Overnight on Tuesday, Sept. 13, the trucks will convoy to Washington, D.C., where the home will be hurriedly reconstructed, in time for the U.S. Department of Energy's 2011 Solar Decathlon.

"It's amazing how fast the time has gone," said John Whitelaw, Team Tidewater project manager and an ODU environmental engineering doctoral student. "It's a testament to the hard work of a large number of people that we've gotten to this point today."

As when the home arrived on campus in the spring, a small crowd gathered to watch a crane lift the three pieces and the roof onto separate trucks. As a modular home, it's meant to be easily reassembled on the Solar Decathlon site in Washington, D.C.

The student teams that entered the 2011 Solar Decathlon were challenged to design, build and operate the most affordable, attractive, effective and energy-efficient solar-powered house. Team Tidewater is one of 20 finalists in the competition, among a group that includes teams from China, New Zealand, Belgium, Canada and across the United States.

During the weeklong event (Sept. 23 to Oct. 2), thousands of tourists, architects and engineers are expected to visit Unit 6 Unplugged, along with a panel of experts who will judge all of the homes in 10 categories (hence the name "Solar Decathlon").