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. 

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) announced the Solar District Cup Class of 2023–2024 on July 10, 2023. Participants will compete from August 2023 to May 2024. On October 2, 2023, DOE announced the 56 teams from 51 schools that will spend a full academic year developing design solutions to meet the renewable energy goals of campuses or other districts.

How to Participate

For the Class of 2023–2024, students have access to an enhanced training platform to support innovation and learning. Student teams also have two options for their district use cases: (1) assignment to a district use case defined by competition organizers, or (2) a bring-your-own-district division in which students may self-select their district use case, collecting and using the district’s available data on their own, with data synthesis support from competition organizers. All student teams choosing to bring their own district will compete in a division against other teams bringing their own districts. Additionally, the Solar District Cup Class of 2023–2024 has a division for one-semester or two-quarter participation in the winter/spring.