Middlebury students used reclaimed barn wood for the exterior of Insite, their entry in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon.

—Updated Aug. 26, 2013

NORTHFIELD and MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – Middlebury College and Norwich University will co-host a send-off event at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Tuesday, Sept. 10, from 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. for the student teams competing in the international U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon in Irvine, Calif., in October.

Governor Peter Shumlin will be the keynote speaker at 10 a.m. in a program that also includes Middlebury College President Ronald Liebowitz and Norwich University President Richard Schneider, followed by a student press conference.

Afterward, the public is invited to engage with teams on the unique aspects of their designs and celebrate with complimentary refreshments and live music on the Statehouse lawn.

Middlebury and Norwich are two of only 20 teams in the world to be accepted into the 2013 Solar Decathlon, a biennial solar house design competition and expo to be held at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, Oct. 3-13. Each team’s house is soon to be en route to the competition on the West Coast. The public expo on solar house design is expected to attract upwards of 100,000 people. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency.

Middlebury’s house, InSite, is a home for local living. The team designed the home with a focus on reconnecting people with their communities and emphasizing environmental, economic and social sustainability.

Norwich’s home, DeltaT-90, is a modular home designed and built for the unique climate challenges presented by living in the New England region. The team responded to the challenge of creating high performance, affordable housing that is accessible and promotes conservation based living.

In case of rain, the event will be held in Statehouse Room 11.

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Middlebury College, one of the country’s leading liberal arts colleges, offers a rigorous liberal arts curriculum that is particularly strong in languages, international studies, environmental studies, sciences and literature. About 2,450 students attend Middlebury, which was founded in 1800. Middlebury has established itself as a leader in campus environmental initiatives, with an accompanying educational focus on environmental issues around the globe. The college’s strong international dimension has extended its borders beyond Addison County, and includes Middlebury’s Language Schools, Schools Abroad, Bread Loaf School of English, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Monterey Institute for International Studies. www.middlebury.edu

Norwich University is a diversified academic institution that educates traditional-age students and adults in a Corps of Cadets and as civilians. Norwich offers a broad selection of traditional and distance-learning programs culminating in Baccalaureate and Graduate Degrees. Norwich University was founded in 1819 by Captain Alden Partridge of the U.S. Army and is the oldest private military college in the United States of America. Norwich is one of our nation’s six senior military colleges and the birthplace of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). www.norwich.edu