ADDISON GODINE: “And this competition is our opportunity to create a solution to these problems. Which is really an amazing opportunity.”

BARBARA KLEIN: The Solar Decathlon houses will be open to the public from September twenty third to October second. Like the Olympic decathlon, this event is made up of ten events. Houses are judged in ten areas including engineering, building design, communications, and energy balance.

The awards ceremony will take place on October first. The Department of Energy has videos from all twenty teams on its website. For a link to that page, visit our website, voaspecialenglish.com.

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STEVE EMBER: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange with reporting by Shelley Schlender, Nina Keck, and Tom Banse. I’m Barbara Klein.

BARBARA KLEIN: And I’m Steve Ember. You can find our programs online with transcripts, MP3s, podcasts and pictures at voaspecialenglish.com Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.