![Winners of 2021 Solar Decathlon Design and Build Challenges Construct Houses for a Cleaner Future - Featured Image](https://snoopy.archdaily.com/images/archdaily/media/images/6086/6dab/f91c/8141/e400/013d/slideshow/2020-build-challenge--universidad-tcnica-federico-santa-mara-valparaso-chile_51087980382_o.jpg?1619422626&format=webp&width=640&height=580)
The United States Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm announced the winners of the 2021 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Decathlon, a competition that challenges architecture and engineering college students from around the world to design and construct high-performance buildings powered by renewable energy. 72 competing teams hailed from 12 countries and designed energy-efficient residential and commercial spaces, nine of which were constructed and presented in the Solar Decathlon Virtual Village on the National Mall, a first of its kind, in Washington, D.C.