The mission of the Virginia Tech Solar Decathlon Team is to inform and educate the public about issues of energy (particularly solar) while enhancing student education through a design-build process of innovative research and testing through application.

Our multidisciplinary team strives to achieve the following goals:

• To illustrate how solar energy can improve the quality of life. Solar energy is clean; it significantly reduces pollutant emissions; and solar energy is renewable, thereby increasing our nation’s energy security.
• To make the public aware of how energy is used in their daily lives, and to illustrate the energy consumption of daily activities.
• To demonstrate that market-ready technologies exist that can meet the energy requirements of our daily activities by tapping into the sun’s power.
• To demonstrate that sustainable materials and technologies can comprise a beautiful structure in which to live, work, and play.
• To examine a project in a prototypical manner to develop solutions that can be reproduced and realized through manufacturing techniques with economic benefit
• To challenge conventional practice through interdisciplinary collaboration and corporate partnerships