Solar homes draw crowds on Mall

Energy-Conscious Crowds Line Up for Solar Home Competition on National Mall

H. JOSEF HEBERT
AP News

Oct 22, 2007 03:34 EDT

Solar power, still a tiny fraction of the energy used today, may be heading closer to the mainstream — if a display on the National Mall over the past week is any indication.

Twenty universities brought solar homes to Washington, assembled them in the shadow of the Washington Monument and became a weeklong magnet for people wanting to see what these technology-filled homes were all about. To many visitors, they no longer looked like oddball experiments, but dwellings that had the look and feel — although smaller — of houses in suburbia.