Back in the day, Jimmy Carter matched his concern with global oil prices with solar panels perched upon the White House’s roof. In today’s world of ever-rising oil prices and expanding concerns over conservation, maybe President George W. Bush should head down to the Mall to get some ideas on how to best retrofit today’s White House for what looks to be years of tight energy markets to come. It’s the perfect time — the Solar Decathlon has arrived.

Sponsored by the Department of Energy, the Solar Decathlon is a week-long event where 18 university teams compete to “design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house.” The opening ceremony is tomorrow, and the houses will be open to the public from October 7-16. Each team is judged on its house’s architecture, livability, comfort, and ability to provide a consistent supply of electricity to run appliances, provide ample lighting, and charge an electric car. The University of Colorado at Boulder will be defending their title, which they won in 2002. Their winning house is pictured above.

C’mon, President Bush — if university students can design homes run exclusively on sunlight, can’t the White House do the same?

EXB-WDC has posted a set of pictures to Flickr of the construction of the houses.