The Mountaineer PV+ team at West Virginia University placed second in their district for the Solar District Cup 2020. In its inaugural year, this competition is a new multidisciplinary collegiate competition that challenges student teams to design and model distributed solar energy systems for a campus or urban district.

The competition engages students across the engineering, urban planning, finance and business disciplines to reimagine how energy is generated, managed and used in a district. Real-world electricity data is provided from the district, and the goal is to design, mode, and present the most reliable, resilient and cost-effective solar and energy storage system possible.

The first stage of the competition started in fall 2019 when 61 teams across the country entered. With three districts total, the WVU team was randomly placed in the New Mexico State University District. The second stage thinned the teams to a select 35 teams, with our district’s direct competition including:

• Arizona State University
• Brown University
• Clemson University
• Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
• Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis
• Marquette University
• Northern Arizona University
• Santa Clara University
• University of Cincinnati
• University of Colorado Boulder

The Mountaineer PV+ team plans to reenter the competition next year, and all majors are welcome to join as this is a multidisciplinary project, and prior knowledge is not required.