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Energy District Cup: 2026-2027

Class of 2026–2027: Challenging multidisciplinary student teams to design and model integrated energy solutions for a campus or district.
Energy, Environment & Resources Engineering Technology
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Registration Opens for One Semester Teams
Energy, Environment & Resources Engineering Technology
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Summary

Overview

 

Welcome to the Energy District Cup!

WHAT IT IS: The Energy District Cup is a new collegiate competition that challenges multidisciplinary student teams to develop practical, cost-effective energy solutions for a campus or mixed-use district.

Students from engineering, finance, architecture, urban planning, communications, and other disciplines work together to evaluate how buildings use energy and recommend strategies involving energy efficiency and building systems, on-site generation, energy storage, energy management, critical load support, and energy procurement.

HOW IT WORKS: Teams analyze a real-world district use case and develop a proposed energy plan that responds to the district’s goals, needs, and constraints. Students consider technical performance, costs and savings, implementation feasibility, reliability, and stakeholder priorities.

Teams may participate through either a full academic-year competition or a one-semester competition:

  • Full academic-year teams evaluate a larger district of approximately five buildings and submit both a progress deliverable and a final deliverable.
  • One-semester teams focus on a smaller district of one to three buildings and complete an accelerated final deliverable.
  • Teams may work with a district use case provided by the competition or, when eligible, bring their own campus or district use case.

Throughout the competition, students receive training, resources, and opportunities to engage with experts from the National Laboratory of the Rockies and the energy industry. Teams present their final recommendations to a panel of judges and participate in an in-person competition event at the National Laboratory of the Rockies.

Winning teams are selected based on the strength of their technical analysis, financial evaluation, implementation strategy, and ability to communicate a compelling and feasible solution for their district.

WHY JOIN THE ENERGY DISTRICT CUP?

The Energy District Cup helps students explore energy careers, build industry-relevant skills, connect with professionals, and apply classroom learning to real energy challenges.

As competitors, students:

  • Gain hands-on experience evaluating building and district energy needs
  • Explore multiple technologies and strategies rather than a single prescribed solution
  • Practice technical analysis, financial evaluation, project planning, and professional communication
  • Work with real-world energy data, goals, and constraints
  • Build connections with energy professionals and potential employers
  • Develop recommendations that can provide meaningful value to participating campuses and districts

The Energy District Cup builds on the successful structure of the Solar District Cup while expanding the scope of the competition to include a broader range of building- and district-level energy solutions.

Guidelines

Please review the Official Rules document for the complete application process and instructions for competing. 

If you want to receive updates on the prize or have any questions, please subscribe by using the follow feature on the HeroX platform or message us directly at 

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Frequently Asked Questions

9 questions

  1. Yes, but it’s quick and easy. Just click the “Solve this Challenge” button on this page and follow the instructions to complete your registration. All you need to provide is your name and email address.

  2. You can register as a team or an individual. Every American-Made Challenge has a section in the submission form where you will list your team and team members, and those members do not have to match your HeroX team. The team you build using the HeroX team function is not part of the review—only the team you list in the submission counts in the review of your materials. Therefore, you can register and submit as a team or an individual, and it does not affect the review of your submission. If your HeroX team is made up of multiple individuals, only the team captain will be able to begin the submission. 

    To aid your decision, we have created a guide found in the Resources tab.

    Note: If you are competing in a prize with multiple phases, and if different people might submit at different phases for your team, we recommend building a team within HeroX and submitting that way, as you can swap the "captain" for your team, but keep the same team and permissions while just swapping the person who can actually submit the submission.  

  3. If you have a question not answered in the FAQ, post it in the Forum where a prize administrator will respond to you. This way, others who may have the same question will be able to see it. 

  4. The Submission Template is found in the resources tab.

  5. The American-Made Network is a robust ecosystem of professionals and organizations designed to help competitors succeed using expertise, research facilities, and connections to other resources. 

    Network members are organizations—like test facilities, incubators, manufacturers, law firms, business development experts, and beyond—with expertise in a wide variety of energy and other tech sectors. 

    Learn more about the network and see which organizations are part of it.

  6. The National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) administers prizes and competitions on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Each prize is funded by a single DOE office or multiple offices. 

  7. All of your files are uploaded as part of the submission form. Access this form by clicking the “Solve This Challenge” button. The submission form contains an upload option for each of the required file entries. 

  8. If you encounter an issue when attempting to submit an entry to the challenge, you may need to contact HeroX or the Prize Administrator. 

    You may try to connect with HeroX using the online form which appears in the bottom right corner of your browser window, it says Leave a Message. 

    You may also send a message to the Prize Administrator inbox at EnergyDistrictCup@nlr.gov. 

    Please allow at least 1 business day for a response. 

  9. All submissions must be written in English.