ARCOM has announced its sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2015. The Solar Decathlon is an award-winning program that challenges 20 collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency.
“ARCOM is excited to again support and help sponsor the Solar Decathlon Competition,” said ARCOM Vice President of Marketing and Sales, Angelica Matinkhah. “We were first asked in 2009 when the then Solar Decathlon Competition Manager at the National Renewable Energy Lab recognized, after an independent evaluation, that MasterSpec Small Project was the right specification product for the university design teams. We support the Solar Decathlon’s goal of educating the next generation of architects and engineers, and we commend the unique training that the competition’s participants gain to help them enter our nation’s clean energy workforce.”
Sponsors support the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon through in-kind contributions that are based on a list of needs determined by event organizers. Sponsors can also work with individual teams directly by providing in-kind donations, cash contributions, and other resources.
ARCOM, a pioneer of master guide specification systems supporting sustainable design, provides green building and LEED information in MasterSpec specification text and in the companion supporting documents of technical background information that accompany each section. For the 2015 Solar Decathlon, ARCOM will donate copies of the MasterSpec Small Project master specification library and its popular Specifying LEED Requirements Resource to the design teams.
“The Solar Decathlon depends on the valuable support of our many sponsors,” said Richard King, director of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon.
“The sponsorship provided by ARCOM helps ensure that the Solar Decathlon provides a rich learning experience for the student decathletes and educates the public about the money-saving opportunities and environmental benefits presented by clean-energy products and design solutions.”
Solar Decathlon 2015 will take place at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, CA. The competition houses will be open to the public free of charge Oct. 8-11 and Oct. 15-18, 2015. The Solar Decathlon enables visitors to tour the houses, gather ideas to use in their own homes, and learn how energy-saving features can help them save money.