UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The future is bright for six Penn State students who recently took first place in their division of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar District Cup, which is a national collegiate competition that challenges multidisciplinary student teams to design and model distributed energy systems for a campus or district.
The Penn State team “Nittany Solar” comprised students in Nelson Dzade’s "EGEE 437: Design of Solar Energy Conversion Systems" class and included Khaleah Jackson, Olivia DiPrinzio, Olivia Williamson, Joseph Hokky, Al-Harith Al Amir and Mahmood AlFarqani. Dzade, an assistant professor of energy and mineral engineering in the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering (EME) in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences (EMS), advised the team, and Sahil Inaganti, an industry expert from Nexamp, served as the team's mentor.
They beat eight other teams to win the University of Washington Use Case Division and competed in the final pitch championship against five other finalists, with the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez emerging as the overall champion.
“Although we did not win the final Pitch Championship, I am super proud of these amazing energy engineering students for their hard work, dedication and commitment throughout the competition. They represented well the EME department, the EMS college and Penn State at this national event,” Dzade said. “This competition provided a unique opportunity for the students to apply the relevant skills and knowledge acquired from the EGEE 437 class to adopt a customer-centric approach and successfully design a solar project that is compliant with all local codes and is financially viable.”
The Solar District Cup is a renewable energy competition hosted by the National Renewable Energy Lab to help teach college students about the solar industry and better prepare them for careers in the industry.
For the divisional win, the team focused on the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle. For its main campus, UW set goals of a 45% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. UW’s solar team developed a list of buildings with solar potential. For the competition, students were tasked with developing a solar plan for the identified buildings while looking for other nearby areas that might also be suitable for solar energy generation.
In the presentation, the team spotlighted buildings with the lowest retrofit costs, highest energy yield to cost and compliance with local and regional solar regulations, among other factors. Net energy cost saving projections were $83,000 over the 30-year lifespan of the technology. The team tailored the solar panels and design for Seattle’s often-overcast climate.
DiPrinzio said the success stemmed from a semester of work, where the team met weekly to assign tasks and eventually daily heading into the competition. The team split to focus on three areas: design, finance and development. She credited the team's success to communication and preparation.
DiPrinzio, a senior with dual degrees in energy engineering and Earth science and policy, was on the development team. She said she learned a lot about the permitting process and the vast amount of work it takes to bring a great idea to fruition.
“I also learned a lot about how to make the project successful in terms of community engagement, whether through creating an exhibit around the installation at the Burke Museum for the public to view or ranking and selecting a local, unionized contractor for installation,” DiPrinzio said.
DiPrinzio said she spent her time at Penn State focused on solar energy because of its potential to mitigate climate change while reducing global energy poverty. She chose Penn State because the faculty are engaged in both research and industry advances.
“Penn State is a good place for learning about and working with renewable energy as a result of its unique energy engineering program in EMS,” DiPrinzio said. “Additionally, the faculty at Penn State who are actively working on renewable energy is a large pool so there are so many opportunities to get involved with research, and for promoting renewable energy at Penn State and beyond, or by simply taking extra classes to inform yourself.”
Williamson, a senior majoring in energy engineering, also praised the team’s planning and communication. She said the contest taught her a lot about the complexity of planning a solar project.
She got involved in the solar team because, although the energy source has exploded in recent years, she says the boom will only continue due to its untapped potential. She said her major is a perfect fit for someone planning to enter the field.
“Without the creation of the energy engineering [undergraduate degree] program, I never would have encountered this competition, nor would I have been able to meet such a passionate professor such as Dr. Dzade, whose support was the cornerstone of our success,” Williamson said.