It Takes A Village

Hundreds of college students from around the U.S., and even a handful of other countries, have been busy this week building a village of solar-powered homes on a park at the nation's capital.

Back at West Potomac Park on the National Mall, the students have been working long days to pass building inspections and then compete in 10 events over 10 days. The categories include market appeal, energy balance and, new this year, affordability — the goal being to build homes costing $250,000 or less.

The teams — which include universities in China, Belgium, Canada and New Zealand — have to live, cook and clean in the tiny homes (1,000 square feet or less, the rules say) to test their energy efficiency.

Besides solar panels, some of the homes have walls filled with material to store heat throughout the day and release it at night. Others have bioremediation beds to clean rainwater collected from rooftops.

The village isn't permanent. Once winners are chosen next week in the energy-efficiency contest sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the village will be dismantled.

One of the 19 homes will stay behind, however. Dubbed Empowerhouse, it is a partnership with Habitat for Humanity and will be used at a low-income Habitat community in Washington, D.C.