Bouygues Construction is a partner of Solar Decathlon Europe 2014, the competition that challenges teams from universities and graduate schools around the world to design and build a real, functional home that is entirely solar powered.
Solar Decathlon was created in 2002 by the American Department of Energy. The European version of the competition was launched a few years ago. The first two events were hosted by Spain in the city of Madrid, in 2010 and 2012. They were a great success, attracting close to 20,000 visitors. Solar Decathlon Europe 2014 will be hosted by France, within a huge campus set up in the grounds of the Château de Versailles, from 28 June to 14 July 2014.
“Hosting Solar Decathlon for the first time, France is demonstrating that it is a major player in the development of renewable energies and sustainable living. Bouygues Construction’s involvement as a partner proves that it is also an important opportunity to bring together and mobilize all French stakeholders from the building and energy sectors with a view to fully integrating innovative systems into sustainable construction and housing models”, explains Jérôme Mât, Executive Director of CSTB SOLAR.
“Our commitment to Solar Decathlon Europe 2014 is testimony to our determination to support innovation in favour of sustainable homes for all. Inventing the sustainable town of the future is a challenge that clearly requires the mobilization of the entire construction sector. But it also depends on the active contribution of governments, local authorities, academics, etc. Solar Decathlon is a unique opportunity to bring together all these players with a view to generating the innovative solutions that will shape the sustainable and self-sufficient towns and cities of the future”, declares Yves Gabriel, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Bouygues Construction.
For 5 weeks, 20 teams, made up of 600 students and 200 teaching staff from 41 universities and graduate schools from 16 countries will have to work flat out to produce prototypes at the heart of the energy and ecological transition. The prototypes – open to the public – will be judged by 6 international juries who will be able to award up to 1,000 points maximum on the basis of 10 assessment criteria: architecture, equipment and operation, engineering and construction, communication & raising social awareness, energy efficiency, urban project / mobility / cost, energy balance, innovation, comfort, sustainability.
For several years now Bouygues Construction has been committed to a dynamic approach to innovation with a view to inventing the sustainable city of the future. Each year, the Group devotes half of its R&D budget to innovation and sustainable construction with the aim of developing new solutions for constructing buildings that provide occupants with comfort and well-being, consume less energy and help protect the environment. Furthermore, the environment and sustainable construction form one of the 4 priority areas of its sustainable development strategy designed to achieve a global ambition: to shape a better life.