We are looking for creative and hopefully unique designs for solar panel installations. As mentioned in our About page solar PV design suffers from a lack of creativity. Solar panels for the most part are seen purely as a utilitarian commodity, an aluminum, glass and silicon rectangle that’s affixed to a roof or some functional ground mounted frame, it’s uninspiring at best. If solar is really to become truly ubiquitous on the level needed to address climate change there need to be countless design options that address every possible range of people’s built environments and personal tastes. If the description seems a little vague, that’s on purpose, in this particular instance images speak louder than words, if you need some hints or direction, we would strongly suggest visiting our instagram account and peruse the images that we have posted which should provide direction.
Two Phase Competition
The Competition will have two “Phases”, a Creative Design Phase and then a Construction Design Phase. The Creative Design Phase is open to all and anyone can enter, this should be where you indulge your creativity, be practical but creative, think outside of the box. The winners of the Creative Design Phase will be invited to participate in the Construction Design Phase, where they will be asked to refine their ideas and create actual construction drawings of their project.
Competition Rules
You cannot re-design the solar panel itself, to be useful we can’t expect solar panel manufacturers to completely change the size and shape and basic dimensions of panels. You have to work within current panel manufacturing specs. More or less.
Designs must be generally easy to manufacture and replicate by any good contractor, machinist, metal fabrication shop, etc… The final design does not have to be able to be mass produced off of an assembly line, but it should also avoid being incredibly site specific to one location. Somewhere in the middle.
The project should fit within common built environments. We’re not looking for actual new designs of neighborhoods, buildings or homes, we’re looking for design applications that can fit within existing environments – a residential single family home, a commercial parking lot, a town plaza, a multi-family development. You are welcome to submit the design of a new building or project if it helps to illustrate your design idea.
Submission Requirements
All participants / Teams are required to submit at least three and no more than five landscape oriented images (standard A2) which can be a mix of sketches, diagrams, plans, renderings, sections, elevations or anything else that helps to showcase your proposed project. Individual images should not be bigger than 10mb in size, these should be high quality images fit for print (preferably 300 dpi) JPG format.
We cannot accept any video files.
All submissions must be in English.
There should be no names or logos or other identifying characteristic on the boards that might indicate who has submitted which proposal. We will issue an internal identifying number for each individual / team upon registration. That number should be clearly printed on the upper right hand corner of each board submitted and with any other documentation.
You and any team members must submit a fully executed release form. Signed, scanned and emailed back to us.
Registration Fees
There is a one time flat registration fee of $75.00
Prizes
First Prize $2000.00
Second Prize $1000.00
Three Runners Up $500.00 each
Five Honorable Mentions
All winners, which includes honorable mentions, will be invited to participate in Construction Design Phase, there are no registration fees for Phase 2.
All submissions which meet the basic standard of quality will be posted to our website, given an individual page with image gallery, project description and individual / team credit. All submissions will also be eligible for inclusion in a final printed catalogue and the possibility of local exhibition.