Having experience in competitions building solar houses in the United States since 2007, the Illinois Solar Decathlon team is expanding its horizons and traveling halfway across the world in 2013.

The team is taking part in the first competition in China in early August and collaborated with Peking University to construct its house. The competition is biennial, or every two years, although this event is the first one to be hosted in China. Around 20 students will be crossing the Pacific Ocean to China to help finish the house and take part in the competition.

“It is 99 percent student-run,” architecture lead Zak Helmick said. “Most of us have never done this before, so a lot of us are still learning.”

The team has been in contact with students at Peking University for almost two years now, mainly via Skype and emails during early mornings or late nights as it battled the 13-hour time difference as well as the language barrier to create a “net zero” solar house.

The Illinois team is one of 22 teams from 13 countries to take part in the event and the houses will be judged on 10 criteria: architecture, market appeal, engineering, communications, solar application, comfort zone, hot water, appliances, home entertainment and energy balance.

This is the first competition to be held in China, after the United States hosted five events, dating back to 2002, and Spain hosted meets in 2010 and 2012.

This is the first time the Solar Decathlon team has worked in coalition with another university on the project, but Illinois faculty advisor Xinlei Wang said that brought up new challenges and opportunities.

“The big difference is involving more communication between two countries,” he said. “This helps a lot for their future career in the global economy.”

Peking University is the host for the competition, so the Illinois-Peking home is the “showcase” home of the competition.

“It’s meant to be the standard for the rest of the homes,” project manager Kevin Donovan said. “It’s pretty cool.”

This will be the fourth house that the team has constructed over the past six years. The previous three all now reside around campus in Champaign and Urbana, but this house, named “Etho” will stay in China in the city of Datong, which is about four hours west of Beijing.

The 2007 “Element House” is currently at the Chicago Center for Green technology, the 2009 model “Gable Home” is located near the I-Hotel, and the 2011 “Re_Home” is on South Race Street in Urbana.

For the actual materials on the house, the team used resources from all around the world. The house has triple pane thermal windows with built-in blinds from Germany – the best insulated glass in the world, according to Donovan – as well as parts from the United States and China. In addition, the house has translucent, energy-producing skylights in the house from Taiwan. The house is wrapped by zinc panels as well as bamboo cladding along the walls and ceiling.

While these extremely environmentally efficient materials can cost more than regular materials, the funding of the house is from both donations and funding from Peking. The team received $100,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy as well as from the National Energy Administration of China to fund the project, among other donors.

While the house is currently under construction, it will be finished when Illinois students get to China at varying times during the summer.

Stephen can be reached at [email protected] and @steve_bourbon.