Down the Bog

We have two small children and I find myself wondering what the world will be like for them as adults. I already have three grown-up children and I used to think the same thing about them.

Just a fews years before they were born back in 1977 US President Jimmy Carter had the vision to create the US Department of Energy as part of a plan to lead America to a more sustainable future way a head of the global warming concerns that we have today. However nothing really changed and America’s importing of 9 million oil barrels per day back in 1976 has grown to 13 million today. The plans to build a sustainable future with a sustainable energy supply were discarded and President Reagan even had the solar panels removed from the White House placed there during Carter’s presidency.

But things are looking up and since 2002 BP has joined forces with the US Department of Energy to sponsor the BP Solar Decathlon. Every other year twenty university teams from around the globe put together a house designed to be attractive and pleasant to live in along with being completely solar powered. This year from October 12th to the 20th all of the competing houses will have been moved to the National Mall in Washington DC to form a solar village and take part in ten tests to find a winning house design. Visitors are very welcome on those days and the opening times are 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m weekends and 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m weekdays.

There’s a BP Solar Decathlon Blog to be read to get much more inside information from some of the teams.

Just think about it: These houses are designed to be powered completely by the sun but still provide all of the modern conveniences that we are so used to. This requires innovative design and planning but also the fantastic prospect that as this competition continues over the years that we will be able to look forward to seeing houses, peoples homes, built in this way.

For me it was a surprise to see BP, so obviously an oil company involved in such a project but BP has a strong interest in this contest as it has a large involvement already with solar power as part of BP Solar, a global company who’s purpose is to harness effectively the suns energy.

Apart from being such a fascinating competition and one that if I lived closer I would dearly love to attend it makes me wonder that if when my two youngest kiddies are grown up whether this time things will have changed for the better. I really hope so.