A team of engineering students at Sullivan Foundation partner school Hanover College was named a finalist in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar District Cup in December. The collegiate design competition started with more than 50 teams from colleges and universities across the U.S.

The Solar District Cup challenges student teams to design and model optimized distributed solar energy systems for a campus or urban area served by a common electrical distribution feeder. The competition engages students in engineering, urban planning, finance and related disciplines to reimagine how energy is generated, managed and used. The goal is to design, model and present a system that provides the highest offset of annual energy and greatest financial savings.

Related: Wofford College’s Environmental Studies Department celebrates a “decade of ruggedness”

Hanover’s team, the Solar Panthers, was tasked with designing a solar photovoltaic system for Crystal Parks Block, a group of office buildings in Arlington, Va. The Solar Panthers include Oliver Hollaert, Marissa Childs, Jordan Dailey, Kornell Dash, Taylor Bleistein and Christian Reed.

Hollaert represented the team at the Solar District Cup’s Sept. 23 kick-off meeting in Salt Lake City. Preliminary designs were submitted in late November. Finalists were announced Dec. 12. Final projects will be presented April 19 at Solar Power Southeast in Atlanta, and the winners will be announced at the conference April 20.

This story was edited slightly from the original article appearing on the Hanover College website.

Back to all News items.