3 Student Chapters Among Winning Teams in 2022 Solar Decathlon

Sustainability and Green Building
Published

The 2022 Solar Decathlon Design Challenge — a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) collegiate competition that tasks students with designing low-carbon, high-performance buildings powered by renewable energy — celebrated its 20th anniversary with a standout lineup of 20 winning projects across multiple categories.

Among the winning projects, which were selected from a pool of 54 Design Challenge finalists, three NAHB student chapters placed in three separate categories:

Top honors went to Georgia Institute of Technology team for the Residential Grand Winner and the University of Arizona team for the Commercial Grand Winner.

See a full list of winners from this year’s competition.

NAHB congratulates all the student teams and faculty for their hard work, innovative solutions, outstanding projects and, most of all, for leading the charge in the next generation of housing.

“NAHB is proud to be a longtime supporting partner of the Solar Decathlon,” stated NAHB Jerry Konter. “It is truly inspiring to see the hard work, creative high-performance designs, and innovative ideas of the student competition teams. The program not only promotes and showcases sustainable building practices, but also helps prepare the future generation of the green building and design industry.”

Learn more about how solar has continued to grow in this q-and-a with seasoned Solar Decathlon judge and NAHB member Ray Tonjes.

To stay current on the high-performance residential building sector, with tips on water efficiency, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, and other building science strategies, follow NAHB’s Sustainability and Green Building efforts on Twitter.

Subscribe to NAHBNow

Log in or create account to subscribe to notifications of new posts.

Log in to subscribe

Latest from NAHBNow

Sponsored Content

Jan 30, 2026

What 700+ Real Estate Pros Say About Marketing in 2026 and Where Builders Are Losing Ground

Heading into 2026, businesses across real estate are planning for growth — but with caution. Results from a recent survey point to a clear shift: while marketing investment is holding strong, the biggest opportunity – and risk – now sits in responsiveness and follow-up.

Land Development

Jan 30, 2026

How Can Density and Varying Housing Types Influence Local Tax Bases?

Developed in partnership with Urban3, NAHB’s new Value of Land Use Efficiency video and infographic resource takes a data-driven look at how a wide range of residential development types contribute to local tax bases relative to the public services they require.

View all

Latest Economic News

Economics

Jan 30, 2026

Bathroom Remodeling Is Most Common Project in 2025

Every quarter, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) conducts a survey of professional remodelers. The first part of the survey collects the information required to produce the NAHB/Westlake Royal Remodeling Market Index (RMI).

Economics

Jan 29, 2026

Saving Rate Falls to 3.5% in November

Personal income rose 0.3% in November 2025, following a 0.1% increase in October, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Gains were largely driven by higher wages and dividend income. However, income growth has cooled noticeably from peaking at a monthly increase of 1.1% in July 2022 to 0.3% now.

Economics

Jan 28, 2026

Holding Pattern for the Fed

The Fed paused its easing cycle at the conclusion of the January meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the central bank’s monetary policy body. The Fed held the short-term federal funds rate at a top rate of 3.75%, the level set in December. This marked the first policy pause since the Fed resumed easing in September of last year.