Published: March 11, 2007

MEDIA ADVISORY

A news briefing to announce Xcel Energy as the primary sponsor of the 2007 CU-Boulder Solar Decathlon team and to unveil the design of CU's house for the third international competition will be held Tuesday, March 13, in the Discovery Learning Center at the College of Engineering and Applied Science in Boulder.

The briefing will be at 10 a.m. and will feature speakers Jay Herrmann, vice president of customer and community services, Public Service Co. of Colorado, an Xcel Energy company; CU-Boulder Chancellor G.P. "Bud" Peterson; and Dan Arvizu, director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which coordinates the Solar Decathlon for the U.S. Department of Energy.

The design for CU-Boulder's 2007 competition home, including a video "fly through" also will be presented.

The Solar Decathlon is an international competition to design, build and operate the best completely solar energy-powered home. Twenty university teams from the United States, Canada and Europe will transport their homes to Washington, D.C., and construct a solar village on the National Mall from Oct. 12 to Oct. 20.

CU was the international champion in 2002 and 2005. For more information on those designs, visit the team's Web site at solar.colorado.edu.

For information about the briefing, contact Ethnie Groves at Xcel Energy, (303) 294-2300 or Carol Rowe, CU-Boulder engineering communications director, at (303) 492-7426.

For directions to the Discovery Learning Center, contact Rowe at (303) 492-7426. A campus map is available online at .