The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Decathlon is a collegiate competition, comprising 10 contests, that challenges student teams to design and build highly efficient and innovative buildings powered by renewable energy. The winners will be those teams that best blend design architectural and engineering excellence with innovation, market potential, building efficiency, and smart energy production. In the summer of 2018, DOE merged its two student building design competitions into one Solar Decathlon competition.

The combined competition features two tracks, the Design Challenge and the Build Challenge. The Solar Decathlon provides a hands-on experience and unique training that prepares the competing students to enter the clean energy workforce. This international competition has been a driving force in raising awareness about clean energy since its inception in 2002. Technologies and solutions used in Solar Decathlon homes have advanced the residential building industry both in the United States and abroad.

After the first Solar Decathlon was held in 2002, the competition occurred biennially in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017. The Solar Decathlon 2017 was located in Denver, Colorado, adjacent to the 61st & Peña station on the University of Colorado A line commuter train connecting Denver International Airport to downtown Union Station. In addition to the competition, Solar Decathlon 2017 also featured a sustainability expo, professional development and consumer workshops, and middle-school education events.

Open to the public and free of charge, the Solar Decathlon allows visitors to tour energy- and water-efficient houses, and gather ideas to save energy and conserve water in their own homes.

The Solar Decathlon 2017 competition was presented by DOE and administered by Energetics, Incorporated, a subsidiary of VSE Corporation. Previous competitions were administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Since the first competition in 2002, the Solar Decathlon has expanded internationally to include competitions in Europe, China, Latin America and Caribbean, the Middle East, and Africa. Solar Decathlon Europe was established under a 2007 memorandum of understanding between the United States and Spain , which hosted competitions in 2010 and 2012. France hosted in 2014. The Solar Decathlon Europe 2019 was hosted by Hungary in Szentendre. The next Solar Decathlon Europe was planned for 2021, in Wuppertal, Germany and postponed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Solar Decathlon China was established with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between DOE, China’s National Energy Administration, Peking University and Applied Materials on January 20, 2011. The first Solar Decathlon China took place in August 2013 in the city of Datong. The next Solar Decathlon China will take place in 2018 and was formed through a memorandum of understanding among the United States Department of Energy, the People’s Republic of China, and the China Overseas Development Corporation.

Solar Decathlon Latin America and Caribbean was established under a memorandum of understanding between the United States Department of Energy and the government of Colombia in 2014. The first competition was held in Cali in December 2015, and another competition is planned for 2019.

Solar Decathlon Middle East, to be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 2018, was formed by a memorandum of understanding between DOE and the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority in 2015. An additional Solar Decathlon Middle East is also expected to take place in 2020.

On November 15, 2016, the Moroccan Ministry of Energy, Mines, Water, and the Environment (MEMEE); the Moroccan Research Institute in Solar Energy and New Energies (IRESEN); and DOE signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on the development of Solar Decathlon Africa. The competition is planned for 2019.