Twenty college teams from around the world (well, the U.S., Germany, Canada, Spain and Puerto Rico) will compete in the 2009 Solar Decathlon competition that will take place next fall in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Department of Energy's challenge is to build and run an entire home on solar power. As in previous years, the teams will also need to take into consideration generating enough electricity to power an electric car.

True to the name, the student-led teams will need to focus on ten areas. Transportation is covered by the EV aspect mentioned above. The other nine categories are architecture, engineering, market viability, communications, comfort, appliances, hot water, lighting, and energy balance. The DOE states:

In addition to producing enough electricity and hot water to perform all the functions of a home, from powering lights and electronics to cooking, washing clothes and dishes, each home must produce surplus energy sufficient to power an electric car. The team that finishes the week of competition with the most points wins.

The 20 teams (listed after the jump) will each get $100,000 for this contest, which is part of President Bush's Solar America Initiative, a plan the DOE says "seeks to make solar power cost-competitive with conventional forms of electricity by 2015." The video above was shot at the 2007 Solar Decathlon, where the team from Technische Universistät Darmstadt won. Here's the DOE press release announcing the 2009 teams.

Related:

• ABG's youngest "correspondent" checks out the Solar Decathlon solar homes
• Twenty teams working towards 2007 Solar Decathlon

[Source: DOE via Renewable Energy Access]