In this year's U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar District Cup Collegiate Design Competition, 43 student teams from 38 schools are entering an ever-widening community of competitors and alumni.
On Oct. 1, 2024, DOE announced the schools participating in the full-academic-year version of the competition.
Schools participating with student teams in the full-academic-year timeline of the Solar District Cup Class of 2024–2025:
- Appalachian State University
- Arizona State University (Winter/Spring timeline)
- Boise State University
- Boston University
- Colorado School of Mines
- Columbia University
- Community College of Philadelphia
- Cornell University
- Drexel University
- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
- Hampton University
- Houston Community College
- Illinois State University (Winter/Spring timeline)
- Manhattan University
- Navajo Technical University
- New Jersey Institute of Technology (including one Winter/Spring team)
- New York Institute of Technology
- North Carolina State University
- Northeastern University
- Oregon Institute of Technology
- Portland State University
- Southern Methodist University
- Texas A&M University
- The College of New Jersey
- The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
- The George Washington University
- The Johns Hopkins University
- The University of Alabama
- University of California, Merced
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- University of Colorado Boulder (Winter/Spring timeline)
- University of Dayton
- University of Illinois, Chicago
- University of Massachusetts Lowell
- University of Minnesota Duluth
- University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus
- University of Utah
- Villanova University
"We are honored to see the growing community of competitors, with both returning schools and new schools added to the roster this year," said Sara Farrar, competition organizer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. "We hear back from so many students that this competition was crucial to their entry into clean energy careers, and we are helping to connect these future leaders so that they become mentors, themselves."
This year, teams will compete in as many as six divisions. Five divisions will have assigned districts, and one division will be for teams that choose to specify their own district use cases. Two divisions will begin the competition in a condensed version of the program that closes registration on HeroX in January 2025.
The three district use case partners for which students start their designs this fall are Seattle Colleges, State University of New York at Oneonta, and The College of New Jersey.
Congratulations to these teams! We are looking forward to meeting you!
-Solar District Cup organizers
Still Time To Register for the Competition
Collegiate teams can still register for the competition until January 16, 2025.
If you have any questions or are interested in getting involved with the Solar District Cup as a competitor, partner, industry mentor, or judge, . You can also follow the Class of 2024–2025 as they advance through the competition.
