Sunny victory in College Park
You've heard of a green thumb? Well, the University of Maryland has a green toolbox. And a big green award for its environmentally-friendly home building.
A group of Maryland students on Friday beat out 17 other teams nationally in a solar house building competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. In the international competition, Maryland's LEAFHouse (for "Leading Everyone to an Abundant Future") came in second to the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany.
Hail to the suntamers!
The solar-powered house was on display last week along with the other competitors on the National Mall. "The Maryland house had led the contest all week after taking second place in the architecture contest (which Darmstadt won), and winning in the lighting and communications contests," the university press release says. "However, the German team entered the final cloudy day with more power in its batteries. It didn't have Maryland's advantage of a unique indoor waterfall, which Maryland students and their professor invented to save help air-condition the house."
Hey, maybe they could build some of those "unique indoor waterfalls" in the College Park dorms? Now those would be cool rooms.... each student a personal waterfall.
Go here for more on the Maryland LEAFHouse.
I report on the environment and Chesapeake Bay. A native of West Virginia, I have focused mainly on Maryland's environment since moving here in 1983. Along the way, I've crewed aboard a skipjack in the bay, canoed under city streets up the Jones Fall from the Inner Harbor, and gone deep underground in a western Maryland coal mine. Recently, I have been covering the growth and development transforming the landscape. I love seafood, rambles in the country and good stories. I hope to share some here.