The solar house team at the University of Missouri-Rolla, in conjunction with UMR’s Student Design and Experiential Learning Center, plans to dedicate UMR’s Solar Village this month during homecoming weekend.         

A grand opening of the solar village will be held at 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 20, on 10th Street across from the Gale Bullman Multi-Purpose Building in Rolla. The public is invited to tour the two solar homes that were recently placed on foundations in the new village. The official dedication ceremony starts at 5 p.m.         

The UMR Solar House Team is currently preparing to build a new house at the solar village site. That house will be entered in the 2007 Solar Decathlon in Washington, D.C. In advance of the 2007 event, which will be held in the fall of next year, the UMR team will take the house apart and ship it to Washington.         

When the 2007 house returns from the Solar Decathlon, it will be placed back on a foundation in UMR’s Solar Village next to the houses built for the 2002 and 2005 competitions. The solar village will be completed when the fourth house is built in 2009.