Penn State finished 16th out of 20 teams in last week's 2009 Solar Decathlon -- a 12-place drop from the 2007 team's ranking.
But among a roster of competitors who spent considerably more than the Penn State team could afford, the students feel this year's scoring did not accurately reflect their capabilities.
The fourth biannual Solar Decathlon took place on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where Penn State's team -- Natural Fusion -- competed against 19 other teams of student engineers and architects to "design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective and energy-efficient solar powered house," according to the U.S. Department of Energy's Web site.
While Penn State ranked third for two of the 10 events in the competition -- engineering and lighting design -- there was still a significant drop in the ranking from 2007, the first year Penn State entered. That year, the team came in fourth place.
In 2007, teams were given
10 days to set up houses, but this year they were given only seven, Natural Fusion faculty director Jeffrey Brownson said.
And while many teams this year hired professional electricians, architects and contractors to help build the homes, Penn State students built their home almost entirely by themselves and finished construction later than other teams.
"Because the house wasn't finished, we couldn't participate for two days in the competition when we measured enormous amounts of power that were never recorded," Brownson said. "It was a poorly chosen rule."
In this year's competition, the majority of other university teams' budgets increased, Brownson said. But Penn State's budget actually decreased.
In 2007, the team from Germany spent about $1.3 million, the largest amount seen in the competition, Brownson said. In 2009, four or five teams spent this amount of money for their homes, he said. Penn State spent only $560,000 for the project, which included classes, travel, food and lodging, Brownson said.
"This is becoming an uneven competition. The Solar Decathlon creates one of the greatest incentives to get students to do this, but the assessment was not great in showing how amazing the students really are," he said.
Brownson said despite the low overall ranking, Penn State students were "the most well informed, most friendly and most able to answer questions about the house at the decathlon, which made them truly unique."
John Horst, a Department of Energy spokesman, said his office gives each team an equal amount of $100,000 in funding, leaving students to raise more funds on their own.
"What it comes down to is if the home is both aesthetically pleasing and if it will function to produce energy on its own," Horst said. "But we're trying to always learn from students how to put together and improve an event of this magnitude."
Alyce DiLauro (senior-public relations), Natural Fusion's communications events coordinator, also thought the judging of the competition did not necessarily reflect the work of the students.
