CMU Students Win Second Place in DOE Solar District Cup Division

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) students have won second place in Solar District Cup Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Division, a collegiate design competition sponsored by the US Department of Energy. Competitors are tasked with creating systems that incorporate solar, energy storage, and other technologies for a real-world district or campus; honing skills that will be critical in the clean energy transition. 

CMU's inaugural Solar District Cup team is comprised of multi-disciplinary masters students from the Energy Science, Technology & Policy program and Tepper School of Business. Alexandra Kramer (EST&P), Keitaro Iwasa (Tepper), Sean Irvine (Tepper), Ian Gray (Tepper) were guided by faculty mentor Panayiotis (Panos) Moutis (Scott Institute). Their project aimed to maximize resiliency for solar yield and storage solution for the PNNL campus. 

“It was very enriching to work alongside teammates with diverse skillsets and work experiences. This diversity, combined with the support provided by our faculty advisor, Panos Moutis, and mentors in the renewables industry made our project a success," said Ian Gray. 

Alexandra Kramer said it was one her favorite extracurriculars during her time at CMU: “I loved applying what I learned in classes and from my internships throughout the semester into this final project proposal. I feel like I was able to both challenge myself and get support from my mentors and team. I feel much more confident working on a solar+storage project post-graduation."

The U.S. Department of Energy Solar District Cup Collegiate Design Competition encourages a new generation of renewable energy entrepreneurs to develop distributed energy systems that enable a flexible and resilient power infrastructure. For the 2021-2022 program the three district use cases are for Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and The Ohio State University. Learn more about the Solar District Cup.