U.S. Department of Energy Solar District Cup Collegiate Design Competition

The U.S. Department of Energy is holding a collegiate competition named the Solar District Cup. The aim of this competition is to challenge diverse student teams from various study disciplines to create designs for distributed energy systems which can be applied to a mixed-use campus or a district. Such districts are distinguished by buildings grouped together, sharing a common electrical distribution feeder.

The competition encourages students from fields including, but not limited to, engineering, finance, urban planning, sustainability, and communications to envision a new approach into how energy is created, managed, and consumed in a district.

In the course of the competition, students will play the role of solar developers, crafting conceptual designs and formulating financial and project development plans for a district's solar-plus-storage solution. Throughout the competition, students will participate in training sessions guided by solar industry professionals from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and partnered companies. Furthermore, there will be complimentary access to leading industry tools to aid with the design and financial modeling of the solar system.

Each student team will compete within one of several divisions, delivering packages for review and pitching their solutions via an online competition event. An industry panel of judges will select the winning teams from each division based on the merit of their proposed solution. The judges will focus on propositions that propose a robust energy offset and high financial savings over the contracted or efficient life of the system, all while integrating aesthetic appeal, infrastructure soundness, and community factors into the mix.

The deadline for teams to sign up for the full-academic-year competition via the official platform, HeroX, is September 28, 2023. For those teams interested in taking part in the one-semester/two-quarter competition, the registration deadline on HeroX is January 25, 2023. Please note the final competition events will be held from April 19 to 22, 2024.