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" It&amp;#039;s wet and dreary here at the National Mall, a fitting day for the announcement of the winners of the 2009 Solar Decathlon, where students competed to design homes that could run most self-sufficiently on solar power, in rain or shine. The competition, run by the Department of Energy (and sponsored in part by Popular Mechanics), involved 20 college teams, pitted against one another in a showdown of architecture and engineering.  After multiple lead changes throughout the week, team Germany, the defending champions, took the prize again. In their acceptance speech, they saluted the student competitors, saying, &amp;quot;we are all winners.&amp;quot; In second place, came Illinois, followed closely by team California who said &amp;quot;green living doesn&amp;#039;t have to be a compromise.&amp;quot; In the end the prizes were given to those teams whose houses had the best energy-gathering performance over homes with flashy designs and unique user interfaces. Even on a dreary day like today, all of these energy efficient homes have enough energy stored from the sunny afternoons earlier this week to comfortably run. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a4722/4334160/>