Solar Decathlon 2007: And The Winner Is...

20 university teams battled it out for solar home supremacy, and in the end, one stands alone: congratulations to Germany's Technische Universität Darmstadt. How'd they do it? "This team from Germany came to the Solar Decathlon hoping to have an impact on people, and it's safe to say that this happened. Darmstadt won the Architecture, Lighting, and Engineering contests.

"The Architecture Jury said the house pushed the envelope on all levels and is the type of house they came to the Decathlon hoping to see. The Lighting Jury loved the way this house glows at night. The Engineering Jury gave this team an innovation score that was as high as you could go, and said nobody did the integration of the PV system any better. Darmstadt was one of seven teams to score a perfect 100 points in the Energy Balance contest. All week, long lines of people waited to get into this house."

Congrats are also in order for the University of Maryland and Santa Clara University, who took second and third place, respectively, and help prove that in solar homebuilding, there are no losers. See TreeHugger's coverage of the event here, including getting up close and personal with the entries from Maryland and the University of Colorado. All the details are at the ::Solar Decathlon