"Our fight against the climate crisis is a lot like a decathlon, with all kinds of individual contests we need to get through—and we can't win unless we do well in them all," said Secretary Granholm. "Today's decathletes are tomorrow's architects and engineers who are going to help us achieve President Biden's ambitious and achievable clean energy goals and build our net-zero future. I can't wait to see their big ideas come to life in neighborhoods across the country and around the world."
According to DOE analysis, buildings currently account for approximately 74% of electricity use, 39% of total energy use, and 35% of carbon emissions in the United States. There are more than 125 million buildings in the nation that need retrofits to achieve the Administration's goal of net-zero emissions by 2050—which President Biden's American Jobs Plan proposes to address. The Solar Decathlon supports a key strategy to bring that vision to life, by building a pipeline of energy-savvy workers prepared for millions of future jobs in design, construction, retrofitting, weatherization, and more.