About the Challenge

Solar Decathlon India is a Net-Zero Building Challenge for postgraduate and undergraduate students from Indian institutions. They learn and design net-zero-energy-water, affordable, and resilient buildings to combat climate change through the buildings sector. Student teams partner with real estate developers and develop affordable and industry-ready solutions for real building projects. It is a hands-on, practical, innovation-based challenge that moves the construction and real estate industry towards implementing net-zero solutions developed by students.

In the 9-month-long challenge, students and their faculty mentors learn building science with the help of online Self-Learning Modules and expert mentorship and test their ideas using building simulation software. These final designs have to be innovative, affordable, practical, and market-ready.

Benefits of Participating
For students

This is learning rebooted! 

  • Online Self-Learning Modules and webinars by sustainability experts teaching Building Science concepts and best practices 
  • Access to expert mentors in the Technical Resource Group
  • One-year licenses to simulation software and tutorials
  • Hands-on experience on real projects, and networks with real estate developers and the industry
  • Finalists get access to an Internship Program with top organisations in the field of sustainability and net-zero
  • Incubation opportunities to selected finalist teams
For Educational Institutions

Solar Decathlon India provides a platform and support to academic institutions, helping your students learn how to respond to climate change and get placement opportunities.

  • Local and national recognition for the institution as a leader in addressing climate change
  • Learning material and industry mentorship to help faculty to augment the curriculum 
  • Access to pan-India Faculty Conference to discuss mentoring methods, learn from peers, and share ideas to develop curricula related to climate change
For Project Partners

A Project Partner can be a developer or another entity that intends to own or invest in a building project. Each participating team collaborates with a Project Partner whose project they will work on. 

  • Risk-free net-zero-energy-water design solution
  • Opportunity to interact with leaders and innovators in the industry
  • Chance to attend the SDI Finals and see the solutions presented by all teams
  • Opportunity to recruit the best talent in the market
  • Media exposure and recognition
For Industry Partners

An Industry Partner can be a building product manufacturer, technology supplier, or knowledge provider. Benefits of being an industry partner are

  • Innovation: Opportunity to see innovations and mentor innovators. Industry Partners can collaborate with the teams or the institutions towards arrangements for sharing the intellectual property developed.
  • Recruitment: Opportunity to recruit the best talent in the market.
  • Exposure: Media exposure related to SDI, and products/technologies/services related to high-performance buildings.
  • Learning: Complimentary access to SDI’s e-learning modules on net-zero building science.
Eligibility and Forming a Team

Undergraduate or post-graduate students from any Indian institution, from any background, can participate! A team can be made up of a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 15 students. Each team needs to be multidisciplinary, with at least one student from a background in Architecture/Building Science and one in Engineering. Each team must have a faculty advisor, who mentors the team. Each team must partner with a developer or a client whose project they will work on.

Competition Fee

The competition/registration fee for the 2023-24 Challenge is a non-refundable fee of INR 6,000 (Indian Rupees Six Thousand only) per team.