On May 26, 2012, the 22 teams competing for the Solar Decathlon China 2013 made a group appearance to the public in the competition host city, City of Datong, Shanxi Province. They were here to attend the first pre-contest trainings to prepare for the final competition in August 2013.

According to Professor Pingrong Yu, faculty member of the College of Engineering (COE), Peking University and director of the Organizing Committee, fifteen Chinese universities and twenty international universities have formed their own teams or joined with others in the competition. The 22 teams are from 13 countries including China, the U.S., Singapore, Sweden, Israel, the U.K., Turkey, Egypt, Malaysia, Iran, Australia, Switzerland and New Zealand.

On the Press Conference, leaders from the China National Energy Administration (NEA), the U.S. Department of Energy, Shanxi Province, Datong Municipality and Peking University addressed the press at the conference, formally announcing and introducing the 22 competing teams, and looked back on the evaluation process and selection mechanism for the final teams of SD China, expressing their expectations for great achievements from the teams.

Deputy Director of NEA New Energy Zhipeng Liang, Mayor of Datong Yanbo Geng and COE Executive Vice-Dean Dongxiao Zhang answered journalists' questions

On May 27, the Organizing Committee held a schematic design review workshop focusing on the review and guidance on the designs of the competing teams. The workshop reviewed solar energy collection, efficiency of use, energy saving, energy balance, indoor environment, building technology, market potential, etc. to better present the spatial requirement in design of solar energy buildings, namely the integration of solar energy, energy saving and architectural design. The workshop stressed the need to build living spaces that offer sound and complete functions, comfort and sustainability.

Among the 22 teams, the Peking/Illinois team consists of a multitude of 60 PKU students and 30 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign students. The team members were selected from different backgrounds, including architecture design, urban and environment planning, energy resources, electronics, physics, materials, chemistry, economics, finance, marketing, law and information technology to collaborate intimately to provide an integrated design.

The team will work together to raise awareness among the general public on solar technology, energy saving technology, and the low carbon concept. It strives to present the showcase house for the competition in support of the other teams, acting as a display of experience and international partnership.

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