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• The Solar Decathlon successfully tackles the triple: design, build, operate. • Competition houses demonstrate net energy positive buildings. • All energy supply systems are based on PV and air heat pumps. • Houses with battery storage provide flexibility in building grid interaction. • Online knowledge platform provides building information and monitoring data. • The competition format can be linked to building science. The Solar Decathlon is a competition for universities from all over the world to design, build and operate small experimental solar powered houses. Its first edition took place in the US in 2002. Since 2010 it is in practice in Europe with four competitions and 65 net zero or net energy plus houses build and tested in 10 disciplines (decathlon). This paper provides an overview and analysis on the European edition of the competition. The work was carried out within the framework of Annex 74 "Competition and Living Lab Platform" of the International Energy Agency and an EC funded project named "Solar Decathlon Europe - Analysis of the Results". The analysis was based on the development of a web based knowledge platform, providing a large set of information and monitored data from past competitions. Based on the availability of information and data, the comparative evaluation is centred on the building energy supply systems and their performance. Starting with very large PV systems, the latest competitions rules trigger the teams to apply systems sized comparable to small buildings in net zero energy building practice. As a result not all houses succeed in a positive energy balance. Due to the wider introduction of batteries the self-consumption of the solar yield and the degree of self-sufficiency increases. New developments of the competition rules stimulate the energy flexibility in operation with the power grid. Modifications for the rules and the monitoring procedure for the next edition intend to further link the competition to building science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]