Washington -- Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) met this week on the National Mall with members of Cornell University's Solar Decathlon team to see their student-designed innovative home that is entered in the competition.  The 2007 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon is a competition sponsored by the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy where 20 teams of college and university students from the U.S., Canada, Spain, Germany & Puerto Rico design and build revolutionary solar powered houses. 

"The solar home designed by these brilliant Cornell University students is an extraordinary example of ways in which we can use our natural resources to live comfortably while not harming the environment," Hinchey said. "These students are the best of the best and I am so pleased that Cornell is one of just 20 colleges here in Washington participating in this revolutionary competition.  Many of the ideas and designs these students are developing can be applied to buildings across the country."

The 2007 Solar Decathlon is a competition that challenges 20 college teams from around the world in 10 contests to design, build and operate the most livable, energy-efficient, completely solar-powered house. Solar Decathlon houses must power all the home energy needs of a typical household using only the power of the sun. The winner of the competition is the team that does the best job of blending aesthetics and modern conveniences with maximum energy production and optimal efficiency.

Hinchey is helping to organize and create The Solar Energy Consortium -- a group of private and public companies and institutions, including Cornell University, that will research and develop new ways to efficiently and effectively deliver energy from the sun.  Hinchey helped organize and create TSEC, which will be located in Kingston's Tech City and will serve as the base for the solar power industry in New York.  The consortium is expected to initially provide 300-500 jobs and create upwards of thousands of jobs within the next several years.  Statewide, TSEC has the potential to create tens of thousands of new jobs over the next decade while establishing the state as the global leader in the development of integrated photovoltaic systems technology.