UK Shines in Solar House Competition

And the magic buggy whip industry takes it in the nuts from some college geeks.

The University of Kentucky's entry in a solar house competition finished ninth among 20 entries from the United States, Canada, Germany, Spain and Puerto Rico.

"For an international competition, that's a very good showing," said Donald Colliver, a biosystems and agricultural engineering professor who was an adviser to the students who worked on the house.

The winner, announced Friday morning, was Team Germany from Technische Universität Darmstadt. Second was the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The UK entry, called S•KY BLUE, featured pixilated photos of Kentucky landscapes, interiors of Kentucky maple and cherry wood, and a solar roof that tilted to catch the sun at the best angle.

The house came in fifth in the net metering category, which measured the amount of electricity it produced compared to how much it pulled from the grid.

Gregory Luhan, an associate dean for research in the College of Design, said one thing that set the UK house apart from the others is that team members chose to cook meals in the house instead of having catered food brought in.

"We actually used it as if it were a typical on-grid home in Kentucky," he said.

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How fast can we get these suckers rolling off the assembly line?