Team North for the Win!

In a time when people are bandying around a lot of opinions on sustainable energy, it's nice to see that some people are still chasing that elusive answer empirically.

A team of students and faculty from Ryerson University, U Waterloo and Simon Fraser in BC have joined forces to develop a fully solar-powered home which will illustrate the potential uses of solar energy in everyday life. This team is one of only two Canadian teams to be accepted to the prestigious 2009 Solar Decathalon competition (a yearly competition sponsored by the United States Department of Energy).

Team North (as they're called) is developing their "North House" to suggest marketability of solar energy to middle-class families with active lifestyles. In addition to increasing the popularity of this renewable resource, it is hoped the North House project will highlight ways to make solar energy affordable to the average household in North America.

Personally, I think this is a fantastic initiative, well worthy of Canadian involvement; though at the same time on some level I kind of wish major organizations like the Department of Energy would be more interested in pursuing these initiatives on a day-to-day basis instead of a once-yearly project. I think we can all agree that developing alternative energy sources is a worthwhile endeavour any day of the year.

Check out the original article here, and tell me what you think -- do you suppose making a competition out of the initiative helps boost its public image, or do you figure more funding should be put into following these projects all the time?