September 18-21, 2024

Faculty Development Programme

SDI organisers conducted a Faculty Development Programme from 18 -21 September 2024 for faculty members who are leading or advising the teams participating in the 2024-25 Challenge. The programme is intended to help faculty become future-ready educators and mentors to students interested in becoming leaders for net-zero.

About 40 faculty members from institutions across India attended the event at the Indian Institute of Human Settlements (IIHS) Bangalore City Campus. They learned about expectations of the SDI jury, multidisciplinary teaching, human centric innovation, decoding building costs, pricing their products, and more. The programme featured hands-on sessions, panel discussions, and expert-led activities.

May 17-19, 2024

SDI Finals

Solar Decathlon India (SDI) conducted its 4^th Finals event at Infosys, Mysuru. The 2023-24 finals had 37 teams, who presented their work of net-zero building solutions to a crowd of over 750 people. Gagandeep Bhullar – Founder and CEO, SuperHumanRace and Nandan Nilekani – Chairman and Co-founder, Infosys and Founding Chairman UIDAI (Aadhaar), delivered inspiring speeches to the audience. The Climate Smart Innovation Exhibition had 17 shortlisted entries who exhibited innovative building solutions geared towards mitigating climate change.

The SDI trophies awarded to all the winners were themselves carbon negative with an embodied carbon of -0.25 KgCO 2 e/Kg. These trophies are made of wood and adorned with a stainless-steel medallion.

Prasad Vaidya, the Director of SDI, wrapped up the event by announcing the 5^th edition of SDI.

Infosys hosted the 3-day Finals event pro-bono, and JSW Cement Limited was a Bronze Sponsor.

Watch the recording of the livestream here and a short event movie here.

September 14-16, 2023

Faculty Development Programme

May 26-28, 2023

SDI Finals

After two years of COVID-19 forced virtual events, Solar Decathlon India (SDI) conducted its 3^rd Finals event at Infosys, Mysuru. The 2022-23 finals had 36 teams, who presented their work of net-zero building solutions to a crowd of over 650 people. Innovator and social entrepreneur, Anish Malpani, delivered the keynote address on his initiative to turn hard-to-recycle plastic into stylish sunglasses. The Building Industry Innovator Exhibit had 12 finalist entries from the industry, who exhibited innovative building solutions geared towards mitigating climate change.

The SDI trophies awarded to all the winners were themselves carbon negative with an embodied carbon of -0.25 KgCO 2 e/Kg. These trophies are made of wood and adorned with a stainless-steel medallion.

Prasad Vaidya, the Director of SDI, wrapped up the event by announcing the 4^th edition of SDI.

Watch the event here.

September 23-24, 2022

Faculty Development Programme

Solar Decathlon India invited Faculty Leads and Advisors of registered teams of the 2022-23 Challenge to the Faculty Development Programme on September 23 and 24, 2022 at IIHS in Bengaluru.

The programme was intended to help faculty become future-ready educators and mentors to students interested in becoming leaders for net-zero. The two-day agenda had presentations and discussions from experts and past participants addressing the Net-Zero Building Challenge and on strengthening the curriculum to combat Climate Change. The FDP introduced attendees to the resources provided during the 2022-23 Challenge and also outlined how they could use these resources effectively in their teaching and to guide students to work in multi-disciplinary teams. Faculty mentors also got the opportunity to network with other faculty across the country.

March 7, 2022

Ticket to the Finals

On 7 March 2022 , the finalists of the 2021-22 Challenge were announced by the expert reviewer panel of Solar Decathlon India. An additional jury panel with members from the real estate industry was also present at the event. They talked about their impressions of the work done by students and how the ideas that the students have come up with can benefit the real estate industry.

Watch the event here: https://youtu.be/n9o8dDsgBok

January 23, 2022

Cost Estimation and Affordability for your Building

Consumers are often wary of making their homes net-zero because they think they are expensive. This is a myth! Your building could actually cost lesser than conventional buildings, and this could become your selling point.

In this interactive webinar by Jagadeesh Taluri and Mansi Parikh, learn how to estimate the cost for your building and make it affordable. The speakers discuss how to assess the costs for your building, calculate the return on investment and how you can make it more affordable.

Watch the webinar here: https://youtu.be/r2Oav38CpqY

January 20, 2022

Resilient Design for your Building

As we are increasingly witnessing extreme weather impacts due to climate change, buildings are our first defense against the harsh impacts. It is important to make our buildings adapt to the changing environmental conditions and maintain functionality in the face of stress or disturbance.

In this webinar, Ashok Lall talks about how you can design your building for resilience against climate change, and increase the preparedness of the occupants. Using case studies, he discusses strategies to reduce risk and address hazards in buildings.

Watch the webinar here: https://youtu.be/7gOLPi3LyTI

January 6, 2022

Mechanical HVAC and LEC for your Building

Life without mechanical HVAC systems seems unimaginable during current times. But we know the impact that these systems have on our planet. What if we could reduce their negative impact while achieving thermal comfort in our buildings? Join Peter Rumsey and learn how to design the Mechanical HVAC and low energy cooling systems for your Building.

In this interactive webinar, he discusses the different types of HVAC systems, which one could be most appropriate for your building, and alternative low energy cooling systems that you can use in your building.

Watch the webinar here: https://youtu.be/u-wSzAk_O2w

December 17-18, 2021

Faculty Conference

Solar Decathlon India’s Faculty Conference was held virtually on December 17 and 18, 2021. The theme of the challenge was Teaching for Climate Action. Over 50 faculty mentors of participating teams attended the conference and gave feedback to the organisers about their experiences with the challenge thus far.

Faculty mentors of winning teams from last year shared insights on how they managed to lead their teams to success. Jury and reviewers discussed their observations from the deliverable submissions and set expectations for stage 2 of the challenge. The conference touched upon the role of teachers in preparing the next generation for concrete Climate Action in our buildings and communities.

December 19, 2021

Simulations with DesignBuilder (5 of 5)

You have some information on the solar energy potential for your building. Now let’s take it to the next level and use simulations to assess the energy generation and consumption in your building.
In this webinar, PC Thomas will demonstrate how to incorporate your solar PV system in DesignBuilder and analyse the data. He will also touch upon the topics from the previous webinar about modeling a centralized (Chiller, AHU, and VAV) system for energy efficiency.

Watch the webinar here: https://youtu.be/q-7QKTEGLrA

December 12, 2021

Simulations with DesignBuilder (4 of 5)

You already know that right-sizing your HVAC system is crucial for energy conservation. But, do you know how to achieve this by using simulations to calculate and analyse the loads in your building? In this webinar, Mansi Parikh and PC Thomas explain how you can evaluate the air-conditioning loads in your building and how you can use your load calculations for system sizing. They also explore the energy savings through various types of HVAC systems and demonstrate how to model unitary (VRV) systems and centralised (Chiller, AHU, and VAV) systems.

Watch the webinar here: https://youtu.be/avZd6FCHuJk

December 05, 2021

Designing Right-sized HVAC with Load Calculations

Calculating the loads to determine the right size for your HVAC equipment is one of the most important ways to conserve energy and cut down costs.  In this webinar, Peter Rumsey will discuss the approaches to rightsizing and various strategies to do so. He will also explain the cost impact of rightsizing and the interrelationships between different building systems and their impact on each other.

Watch the webinar here: https://youtu.be/ZQm1PYFOSqM

December 04, 2021

Ask Me Anything about Natural Ventilation

Channeling the flow of the wind to cool your building is an art that requires careful consideration during your design process. In this interactive session, ask Swati Puchalapalli anything about Natural Ventilation. She will answer all your queries about optimizing the ventilation in your building by monitoring the flow patterns, sizing the windows appropriately, and using shading techniques to influence natural ventilation in your building.

Watch the webinar here: https://youtu.be/XJXQgLB-DO4

November 21, 2021

Simulations with Design Builder (3 of 5)

As you design your building, you may have questions about the most effective strategies to reduce cooling load. In this webinar, learn how to use simulations to make these decisions. Mansi Parikh shows examples of how she uses simulations to analyze passive techniques such as building orientation, window-to-wall ratio, shading, window design, and natural ventilation. PC Thomas explains how to model HVAC systems, incorporated with natural ventilation for ‘mixed mode’ operation. The experts also explain how to visualize the effectiveness of your natural ventilation strategy and how you can control window operation for effective natural ventilation.

Watch the webinar here: https://youtu.be/Kl2D2EPrSXc

November 14, 2021

How to get in the news?

You are gaining a solid technical understanding, applying it in your work and developing incredible solutions to complex problems. But how are you letting others know about your work and your contribution to addressing climate change? While the jury will evaluate teams on the communication efforts, the narrative you build about your work, will also help you develop your identity as a young leader for net-zero. In this webinar, Janani Venkatesh and Padma Venkataraman will help you address the communication contest to scale up the impact of your work.

Watch the webinar here: https://youtu.be/4b_7o8fqd70 

October 24, 2021

Thermal Comfort, Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation for Occupants

Did you know that the air-conditioner that you use to cool your home, warms up the earth? What are the ways to achieve thermal comfort in your home without relying on mechanical systems? This interactive webinar will discuss the concept of thermal comfort, developing control systems for adaptive comfort in mixed mode, and the use of mechanical ventilation systems. The webinar will also provide insights on filtration solutions for a healthy indoor environment and show case studies on practical application of these concepts. Don’t forget to complete the Self Learning Module on Thermal Comfort, Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation before the webinar, as this will help you understand the concepts better.

Watch the webinar here: https://youtu.be/JGk08EwmTFE

October 17, 2021

Water sufficiency for your Building and Occupants

Join Sanjay Prakash this Sunday at 4PM and learn how to make your building achieve net-zero water. Designing a closed water cycle and efficiently managing the on-site water in your building provide significant opportunities to achieve water sufficiency in your building and tackle India’s water scarcity. This interactive webinar will help you design a net-zero water cycle for your building, and show case studies of projects with sound water sufficiency goals, the use of latest technologies to manage water use, and related cost and maintenance. Don’t forget to complete the Self Learning Module on Water Sufficiency before the webinar, as this will help you understand the concepts better.

Watch the webinar here: https://youtu.be/0yTIIRluOsQ

September 26, 2021

Simulations with DesignBuilder (2 of 5)

Hope you are now familiar with the DesignBuilder interface, because in this webinar, we will dive deep into the representation of building geometry for performance analysis. PC Thomas will discuss how to populate the construction details for solar, thermal and daylighting calculations. Mansi Parikh will explain how to conduct sensitivity analysis to optimize your building envelope, and how you can use the results from your analysis to choose the right kind of walls, roofs and shading devices for your building.

Watch the webinar here: https://youtu.be/wB-EakGmBLI

September 26, 2021

Passive Design and Shading for your Building

Do you know how to take advantage of the climate to make the occupants in your building feel comfortable? Using passive strategies to design your building, you can use the warmth of the sun and the cool winds to achieve comfort in your building. In this interactive webinar, Siddhartha Wig will discuss why you should use passive design strategies to achieve net-zero energy performance, how you can conduct a climate analysis to identify appropriate passive strategies for your building, and how a combination of passive and active strategies can help you optimize the performance of your building.

Watch the webinar here: https://youtu.be/2XtcDX1rNK0

September 19, 2021

Heat Transfer and Your Building Envelope

Why are some buildings cooler than others? What can you do to control heat transfer in your building without relying on mechanical systems? In this interactive webinar, Rajan Rawal explores suitable building materials and assemblies to control heat transfer, and the related benefits and costs. He dives deep into optimization and sensitivity analysis, thermal bridging and the sequence of building envelope layers. He also shows case studies of good/bad designs and thier impact on the heat transfer through the building envelope.

Watch the webinar here: https://youtu.be/iUnosBADDGI

September 17, 18 2021

Faculty Development Programme

A virtual Faculty Development Programme highlighted the critical role of faculty mentors in keeping student teams motivated, and guiding them towards collaboration as well as individual growth. Suresh Bhagavathula introduced faculty to the Social Lean Canvas as a tool to comprehensively define their innovation. Rohan Parikh talked about the process of innovating for Infosys to reduce the energy consumption of their campuses by 50%. Deepa Parekh presented her experiences as a green building professional and educator working with multi-disciplinary teams. Faculty mentors reflected upon the challenges their teams would face and brainstormed ideas to guide them in the next 9 months. The organisers shared student feedback from last year’s outstanding faculty applications that identified important qualities of a faculty mentor.

September 12, 2021

Simulations with DesignBuilder (1 of 5)

Excited to run your building simulations, but don’t know where to start? We’ve got you covered! In this interactive webinar, PC Thomas discusses the fundamentals of the DesignBuilder data structure and demonstrates the different types of analysis possible. He also runs through on how to represent building geometry for thermal performance analysis, compares thermal performance outcomes and explains how to review simulation results. Mansi Parikh explains how to conduct climate analysis, through case studies of her work on net-zero buildings.

Watch the webinar here: https://youtu.be/NGvKHSrTEi4

September 5, 2021

Energy Performance of your Building

Ever wondered how much energy your building consumes? Have you considered the performance of your building while making design decisions? In this interactive webinar, Tanmay Tathagat explains why the energy performance of a building matters and how simulations and analysis can be done to optimize building design for high-performance. He also talks about parametric and sensitivity analysis, energy conservation measures, and an overview of the Energy Conservation Building Code.

Watch the webinar here: https://youtu.be/OuIq-Y9BCKM

August 29, 2021

Harness the power of your multidisciplinary team

Working in a multidisciplinary team with people from different expertise areas can be complex. However, this could also be a strength, as teams use the varied skills and knowledge of members to create something extraordinary. Through this webinar, Ashok Lall explains how teams can harness the power of the multidiscipline during and after the Solar Decathlon India challenge.

Watch the webinar here: https://youtu.be/G_9sHXC5O7s

August 25, 2021

US-India Clean Energy Partnership event

The U.S. Department of Energy, the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum, the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), and the Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE) conducted a virtual event titled ‘Building the Next Generation with Solar Decathlon: Sharing Highlights and Best Practices from 2021 Design Challenges in the U.S. and India’. The event celebrated the inaugural Solar Decathlon India challenge and recognized the efforts of students and the industry for innovating climate change solutions in the building sector. Alumni from challenges in India and the US showcased their work. Solar Decathlon participants Khushi Daxini and Nathulal Suthar Team Ferb talked about their design of an educational building in the 2020-21 Challenge and their use of kinetic facades and radiant cooling systems to achieve comfort and net-zero performance.

August 22, 2021

Kick-starting your Solar Decathlon India entry

Participants of Solar Decathlon India undergo a rigorous and enriching experience as they work on designing real, high-performance net-zero buildings. In this webinar, Yashima Jain and Prasad Vaidya help participants kickstart their Solar Decathlon India entry in style. They discuss details about the 2021-22 Challenge, highlight work done by teams in the previous year, and talk about best practices for organizing and managing multi-disciplinary teams.

Watch the webinar here: https://youtu.be/z76PBl32xcU

August 8, 2021

Learn how to find a Project Partner

Having registered for the Solar Decathlon India 2021-22 Challenge, the first step for participants is to partner with a real-estate developer to work on a live project during the challenge. But this process can be complex and challenging. How to strike a conversation with a developer? How to motivate them to collaborate on their Solar Decathlon India project? Members of the organizing team, Jagadeesh Taluri and Prasad Vaidya, throw light on the approaches that participants can take to secure a partnership with a developer whom they have been aspiring to work with.

Watch the webinar here: https://youtu.be/Qd1Q9mGC1T4

July 25, 2021

Ask Us Anything about Solar Decathlon India

As Solar Decathlon India 2021-22 Challenge opened for registrations, participants had many questions in mind while enrolling their teams. This live Q & A session with members of the organizing team, Prasad Vaidya, Jagadeesh Taluri, and Yashima Jain , clarified all their questions about registrations, team formation, finding a Project Partner, Deliverable submissions and much more!

Watch the webinar here: https://youtu.be/Fq0ag_T43Oo