Welcome to the Solar District Cup Class of 2023-2024!
WHAT IT IS: The Solar District Cup is a collegiate competition that challenges multidisciplinary student teams to design and model distributed energy systems for a mixed-use campus or district—groups of buildings served by a common electrical distribution feeder.
The competition engages students across disciplines—engineering, finance, urban planning, sustainability, communications, and more—to reimagine how energy is generated, managed, and used in a district.
HOW IT WORKS: Student teams assume the role of a solar developer to produce conceptual designs, financing, and project development planning in a solar-plus-storage proposal for a district use case.
Over the course of the competition, students receive training from solar-industry experts from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and partner companies. Students also receive free access to leading industry tools to enable successful solar system design and financial modeling.
Teams compete in one of multiple divisions. Students submit deliverable packages for evaluation and present their solutions to judges live at an online competition event.
Winning teams from each division are selected by industry judges based on the quality of students’ proposed solutions. Judges are looking for winning proposals that maximize the district’s energy offset and financial savings over the contracted or useful life of the system while also integrating aesthetic, infrastructure, and community considerations.
WHY JOIN THIS COMPETITION?
The Solar District Cup seeks to inspire students to consider new career opportunities, learn industry-relevant skills, engage with the professional marketplace, and prepare to lead the next generation of workforce in distributed solar energy.
As competitors, students:
Gain experience with innovative renewable energy design
Practice with industry-leading tools used every day in solar development
Engage with industry professionals to forge connections and transition to the solar energy workforce
Develop real-world solutions that shape the future of solar energy.
PREVIOUS PROGRAMS
The Solar District Cup originated in 2019. Learn more about the past classes of competitors, including winners and district use cases:
The Solar District Cup is directed and administered by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and is funded by the DOE Solar Energy Technologies Office. Learn more.
GUIDELINES
The Rules document provides a framework for student effort, team submittal requirements, and judging evaluation. Consult the official Class of 2023-2024 Rules (published August 15, 2023).
GOAL
The goal for each team is to design a solar-plus-storage system for a campus or district that maximizes energy offset and financial savings during the contracted (if power purchase agreement [PPA] or lease) or useful (if cash purchase) life of the system.
Competition teams analyze electric distribution grid interactions and assume the role of renewable energy system developers to produce a PPA, lease, and/or cash purchase proposal for their division’s district.
The Solar District Cup has multiple divisions. Each division has a set of teams that compete against each other.
Each team is tasked to design a solution for a use case of an existing mixed-use district or campus interested in increased distributed energy development. For most divisions, the competition organizers provide each team with the details of their division’s district use case. Continuing in the Class of 2023–2024, there is a division in which student teams identify their own defined district use case of electricity load and site data.
A district use case is a defined geographic area served by one or more electrical distribution feeders, with a collection of spaces potentially available for PV installation, including but not limited to building rooftops, façades, open land, parking, agricultural dual use, bodies of water, and other facilities or spaces.
HOW JUDGING WORKS
A qualified panel of three to five judges—comprising subject-matter experts and representatives from the partner district use cases selected by the competition organizers—score finalist submissions. The following are judging statements judges will use to evaluate Final Deliverable Packages for the Class of 2023-2024:
PROJECT PROPOSAL - The proposal presents a clear and concise summary of the project. Both the proposal and the presentation make a compelling case for why the proposed solution is the best choice for the district given its needs, constraints, and goals.
CONCEPTUAL SYSTEM DESIGN - Conceptual system design proposes creative and innovative solution that demonstrates excellent analysis, system design, optimal battery use strategy, and understanding of the PV hosting capacity with distribution constraints.
FINANCIAL ANALYSIS - Financial analyses communicate a strong grasp of renewable energy project finance. Input assumptions are justifiable, calculations are correct, battery operation strategy delivers maximum economic benefits, and pricing and rate of return are attractive to the market. The outputs of both the battery analysis and the customer savings analysis are included as tabs in the Excel-based financial model.
DEVELOPMENT PLAN - Proposed building, site, construction, and development plans with any rezoning add significant value in a comprehensive, actionable, and feasible approach for the district, authorities having jurisdiction, and surrounding community members with distributional equity
COMPETITION DELIVERABLES
Teams participating for the full academic year are expected to submit two deliverables: a Progress Deliverable Package part way through the competition and a Final Deliverable Package. Teams that submit the Progress Deliverable receive feedback from the organizer staff.
Student teams participating for just the spring semester (or winter and spring quarters) compete within their own division and submit only the Final Deliverable Package in April.
Competition deliverables are submitted via the online HeroX competition platform. Details about what teams should include in each of the deliverables are available in the official Class of 2023-2024 Rules.
ELIGIBILITY
The Solar District Cup invites teams with at least three students enrolled in accredited U.S.-based collegiate institutions to participate. Students must be enrolled in at least one class and must be pursuing a degree during the competition. Note that graduating during the competition period does not disqualify team members.
To be eligible to present to judges, team members must not have graduated any earlier than the fall semester or quarter immediately preceding the final competition event. Students and faculty advisors are not required to be U.S. citizens at the time of the competition. Judges, competition organizer staff, and DOE and national laboratory employees are ineligible to compete.
Although any level of collegiate student is eligible to compete, the scope is intended to be challenging for multidisciplinary teams of upper-level undergraduate students. Student participation may be integrated into a senior design or capstone project, count as elective or independent study course credit, be added to the curriculum of existing classes, be treated as a seminar topic, be engaged as part of a student interest club, or be an extracurricular student activity.
Each team is encouraged to have at least one faculty advisor, but this is not required for participation. Teams are also encouraged to connect with mentors inside or outside their school. If a team of students needs assistance in identifying a mentor or faculty advisor at their institution, they can contact the competition organizers for help.
By uploading a deliverable package, a team certifies that it complies with the eligibility requirements. If the organizers become aware that a team or individual is not eligible, that team may be disqualified from the competition.
There's only one week left in Fall registration! Collegiate teams interested in participating in the academic-year-long Solar District Cup competition must register by Thursday, Sept. 28, at 5 p.m. ET. Applying by this date offers the many benefits of the full competition experience, including more time to execute projects, the chance to define your own district use case, and feedback from competition organizers on progress deliverables.
To register your team: Just click the “Solve this Challenge” button at the top of the HeroX Solar District Cup page to get started! You don’t need to have any work done, but you do need to follow these steps:
Once you click the “Solve this Challenge” button at the top of the HeroX page, you will receive a confirmation email about HeroX registration, but you won’t be enrolled yet in the competition.
Click on the “Begin Entry” button at the top of the Solar District Cup HeroX main page once you’ve signed up for the site.
Fill out the “Create Submission” form with the best info you have right now—your answers can be general at this time.
Click “Submit Entry” to complete team registration.
Heads-up! Collegiate teams interested in participating in the academic year-long Solar District Cup competition must register by Thursday, Sept. 28 at 5 p.m. ET. Registering by this date offers student teams the full competition experience, including the opportunity to define their own district use case and receive instructional feedback from competition organizers on progress deliverables.
It’s time to build your team and seek an optional faculty advisor—new this year are Student Recruiting Materials to help you out.
Ready to enter? Just click the “Solve this Challenge” button at the top of the HeroX Solar District Cup page to get started! You don’t need to have any work done, but you do need to follow these steps:
Once you click the “Solve this Challenge” button at the top of the HeroX page, you will receive a confirmation email about HeroX registration, but you won’t be enrolled yet in the competition.
Click on the “Begin Entry” button at the top of the Solar District Cup HeroX main page once you’ve signed up for the site with an account.
Fill out the “Create Submission” form with the best info you have right now—your answers can be general at this time.
Click “Submit Entry” to complete team registration.
Here’s how you know your team is registered for the competition: You will receive a welcome email from the Solar District Cup organizers signaling that you are officially registered to compete!
We hope to see you participate in the Solar District Cup this fall!
Questions? Get in touch with the competition organizers: .
Students registered with a team for Solar District Cup are eligible for free admission to an RE+ conference to support their professional networking and awareness of the clean energy industry.
This is North America’s largest renewable energy industry event and includes opportunities to learn about the solar and battery energy storage marketplace, network with professionals, and attend a Job Fair.
Thanks to our partners at RE+ Events, registered Solar District Cup team members can attend an RE+ conference for free!
In addition to their national conference, RE+ convenes many regional conferences throughout the year. Review the list of upcoming RE+ events to find a regional conference for your team to attend!
If you are interested in attending an RE+ event, including next week’s national conference, complete the following steps:
Register a Solar District Cup team prior to the conference by going to https://www.herox.com/SolarDistrictCup, selecting “Solve this Challenge,” and registering a team.
Contact solardistrictcup@nrel.gov for additional information and the code for free student registration to attend the conference.
During last week’s Info Webinar, the competition organizers reviewed programmatic details such as participation expectations, eligibility, a sneak peek into this year’s District Use Cases, rules, competition timeline, training opportunities, and more.
Whether you’re interested in participating as a student or a faculty advisor, we highly recommend watching this webinar to get further guidance on next steps. Plus, make sure you’ve clicked “Follow” on the Solar District Cup on HeroX for the latest updates.
Additionally, materials are available to students and faculty to help recruit more students to your team! Included in the Student Recruiting Materials resource on HeroX is a descriptive PowerPoint slide (could also be printed as a flyer), the promotional video (1.5 minutes duration), and template email message content that can be sent to potential recruits.
If you have remaining questions about the competition, send an email to .
Watch the Class of 2023-2024 Informational Webinar recording now, start recruiting team members, and register your team by Sept. 28 for participation for the full academic year!
It’s your last chance to register for the Solar District Cup Informational Webinar happening later on today, Aug. 17, at 4-5 p.m. ET! Join us as competition organizers cover everything you need to know about competing in the Class of 2023-2024.
Register now and join us at 4 p.m. eastern to get your questions answered and to learn more about the experiences and skills students gain by participating in this unique competition. The webinar will be recorded and shared here on HeroX in the days following the live presentation.
