The University of Colorado at 麻豆影院's 2007 Solar Decathlon Team took third place in the engineering contest, and seventh place overall in the third international solar home competition sponsored by the Department of Energy.
Technische Universitat Darmstadt of Germany took first place overall, followed by the University of Maryland in second place and Santa Clara University in third.
Darmstadt also won the engineering contest, followed by the University of Texas at Austin in second place and CU-麻豆影院 in third. CU-麻豆影院 also placed first in the category for putting the most mileage on its electric car and fourth in the home lighting category.
The results of the engineering contest and the final competition standings were announced today in Washington, D.C. The competition began Oct. 12, with 20 university teams from the U.S., Europe and Canada competing to design, build and operate the best home powered completely by solar energy.
"Of course we would have liked to have placed higher, but we're glad to have made it this far," said Chad Corbin, student project manager for the CU team, which like its counterparts has been working on the project for two years. "Everything came together in the end and we feel really pleased about that."
The CU team was the first-place overall winner in both the 2002 and 2005 competitions. The 2007 event brought some new contenders to the field, including Darmstadt, Santa Clara and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which placed 13th.
The Solar Decathlon homes, which were constructed on the National Mall, will continue to be open to the public for tours on Saturday. After that, the teams will pack up their homes and ship them back to their places of origin.
Xcel Energy, primary sponsor of the CU team, is developing plans to use the home as a demonstration facility to educate customers about clean energy and demonstrate new technologies as they apply to highly efficient homes.