The closing ceremony and award ceremony of China Solar Decathlon

There was a closing ceremony for the 2013 China Solar Decathlon and an awards ceremony, at the Sun Palace in the city of Datong, Shanxi province, on August 11, with the Australian team from University of Wollongong being declared the champions.

After 10 days of fierce competition, the 15-judge panel, whose members came from all over the world, announced that the University of Wollongong was the overall winner of the Solar Decathlon, out of a total of 20 teams, while the South China University of Technology team took second, and Sweden's Chalmers University of Technology, third.

Li Junming, the mayor of Datong, spoke at the closing ceremony and expressed his thanks to the organizers of the event and congratulation to all the participating teams. He declared that hosting the Solar Decathlon meant a great deal to Datong, which is a resource-based city where environmental concerns are growing. The event, he added, is an international pageant of solar energy and indicated a bright future for the city with all the innovative "sun houses" the 20 teams contributed, along with the insights from experts in China and abroad.

The organizers of the Solar Decathlon also spoke at the gathering, where they commended the work of the university students in the field of solar energy and their contribution to sustainable development.

Edited by Roger Bradshaw