The “Orchid House” with Delta’s Energy Solution Won “Energy Efficiency Award” at Solar Decathlon Europe 2014

At this year’s Solar Decathlon Europe, the “Unicode Team” from National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) in Taiwan designed an energy-efficient building “Orchid House” that combines vivid Taiwanese impressions and advanced Taiwanese technologies. The team adopts Delta Electronics’ solar PV power generation, energy storage, energy monitoring and environmental control, and these high efficiency solutions helped the creation win the 3^rd place “Energy Efficiency Award.”

The Solar Decathlon Europe 2014 held at the Chateau de Versailles, France encourages innovations for building concepts with energy-efficient design. The “Energy Efficiency Award” recognizes the best teams in system design, architectural design, and energy efficiency. Mr. Harrison Fraker, a judge at the competition, said, “This evaluation considers not only the active side of energy conservation but also the jury pays special attention to each team’s ability to save energy passively from the design standpoint. Many teams have performed remarkably in this regard through the use of advanced techniques that have certainly inspired admiration from the judges.”

Delta’s Chief Brand Officer and Delta Foundation’s Executive Director Shan-Shan Guo said, “The 'Orchid House' utilizes advanced solutions for energy management, storage and solar power generation developed by Delta. Through Delta’s professional assistance, the NCTU was one of the leading teams to pass the inspection of the energy system. In addition, the 'Orchid House' enables even higher energy savings through synergies between its design and our environmental control platform. Utilizing Delta-branded products at this international event strengthen our efforts towards environmental education and the promotion of sustainability."

Delta supported NCTU, the first Taiwanese university that has participated in the Solar Decathlon Europe, through the integration of the company’s Delta Building Energy Management System (BEMS) and the Battery Energy Storage Solution (BESS). The event has been held since late June 2014 and consists of 20 university teams from all over the world. The teams were given only 10 days to complete the construction of green buildings at the Chateau de Versailles. The teamwork between Delta and NCTU was a remarkable example of cooperation between enterprises and academic institutions. In addition to the “Energy Efficiency Award”, the “Orchid House” also became the first team from Asia to win the “Urban Design, Transportation & Affordability Award” (UDTA).