Image from the 2005 Solar Decathlon, courtesy the event web site.

Oh, our Managing Editor/Unofficial Solar Decathlon Correspondent will not be pleased: a little birdie points us to this Solar Novus Today report, which states that the 2011 Solar Decathlon — the biennial U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored gathering of collegiate designers and engineers from around the world to show off brilliant, energy-efficient homes — will not take place on the National Mall. Why? The event is apparently “impacting” the Mall’s “long-term health.”

That’s right, an international event which is all about helping save the environment through sustainable housing design is apparently one of the biggest bludgeons crushing the greenery of the National Mall. We really couldn’t make this stuff up if we tried.

But it’s not just a bummer for the Washington region — the teams preparing to compete in the 2011 edition of the competition now have to reroute their plans to move a house to, well, wherever the event ends up taking place.

“In this economy, it is already difficult enough to find funding for our project. Now we have yet another hurdle, and this is not a small one,” she said. The team has drafted memorandums of understanding with companies that state that the competition will be on the National Mall. International teams, such as New Zealand, have already started to plan shipment of their house. Team Mass, like others, has invested in printed materials stating that the competition will be on the National Mall.

The teams had already moved their projects ahead after the DOE and NREL received
permits to have the competition on the Mall in September. “We have struggled to meet the somewhat demanding deliverables,” Kelley said, and now all twenty teams await word on the location.

It’s hard to believe that an event that only happens over the span of a week or so every other year is really doing any more damage than the thousands of other events and general wear and tear which the Mall goes through.