Ohio State’s solar decathlon team has finished its first-ever competition ranked in 10th place. The contest, which pits 20 university teams in an effort to build, design and operate the best solar house, ended early this morning (10/16). The houses will remain open for tours through Sunday in the solar village constructed on the National Mall in Washington D.C. for the event.

Teams are judged in 10 categories ranging from engineering to design to net metering to communication.

Team Germany won the overall decathlon, followed by the University of Illinois and Team California.

Here is a breakdown of the Ohio State team’s success in each category:

1. Architecture – 8th place. 82 out of 100 possible points
2. Market Viability – 5th place. 91 out of 100 possible points
3. Engineering – 10th place. 84 out of 100 possible points
4. Lighting Design – 19th place. 57.75 out of 75 possible points
5. Communications – 5th place. 64.5 out of 75 possible points
6. Comfort Zone – 4th place. 82.36 out of 100 possible points
7. Hot Water – 16th place. 62.25 out of 100 possible points
8. Appliances – 18th place. 51.257 out of 75 possible points
9. Home Entertainment – 17th place. 60.492 out of 100 possible points.
10. Net Metering – 7th place. 101.323 out of 150 possible points

Among the other three Big Ten schools in the contest in addition to Ohio State and Illinois, Minnesota placed fifth and Penn State finished 15th, and the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee finished last.

The event, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, is designed to educate the student “decathletes” – the next generation of engineers, designers, architects and communicators – about the benefits of energy efficiency, renewable energy and green building technologies, and to demonstrate to the public the potential of zero energy homes, which produce as much energy from renewable sources, such as the sun and wind, as they consume.

For more details, along with photos and videos, check out these resources:
• Webcams: For this year’s Solar Decathlon, OxBlue Corp. is providing three solar-powered, high-definition construction cameras for the event. One has Ohio State’s house in the foreground. It’s the gray one on the left.
• Solar Decathlon YouTube channel. Here’s an Ohio State video.
• Ohio State College of Engineering on Facebook
• Ohio State College of Engineering on Twitter (Follow tag #osusd.)