Author: US DOE Staff Published: 6/29/2022 SETO
The U.S. Department of Energy announced the fourth round of the Solar District Cup—a collegiate competition designed to bring together multidisciplinary teams to design energy systems for a campus or urban district. Diverse students in engineering, urban planning, finance, and related majors will form teams to reimagine how energy is generated and used in a given district.
As students design their energy systems, they will present solutions to pressing solar deployment challenges while making professional contacts and gaining skills needed to enter the clean energy workforce.
Collegiate teams will compete in divisions and base their energy system designs around the needs of real-world district use cases. This year, students will have two options for their district use cases:
- Assignment to a district use case defined by competition organizers (as in previous rounds of the Solar District Cup).
- Self-selection of a district use case. All student teams choosing to bring their own district will compete in a division against other teams bringing their own districts.
The Solar District Cup Class of 2022-2023 will accept collegiate team registration on a rolling basis, which means students can begin work and access learning resources on a timeline that best aligns with their academic calendar.
Register to compete by Oct. 20, 2022. Registered student teams will receive their assigned district use case and access to modeling tools beginning Aug. 23.
In addition to rolling registration throughout the fall, the Solar District Cup Class of 2022-2023 will allow for one-semester or two-quarter participation in the winter/spring.
The competition is administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Learn more about previous rounds of the Solar District Cup.