Competition / U.S. Department of Energy Race to Zero Student Design Competition (Race to Zero) / U.S. Department of Energy

Collegiate institutions can start planning for the U.S. Department of Energy Race to Zero Student Design Competition (Race to Zero), which is at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado, April 21–22, 2018. The Race to Zero is an annual competition, open to students and faculty from any interested collegiate institution. The competition challenges collegiate teams to design zero energy ready buildings that are so high performance and energy efficient that all or most annual energy consumption can be offset with renewable energy. Through this competition, future architects, engineers, construction managers, and entrepreneurs gain the skills and experience to start careers in clean energy and generate creative solutions to real-world problems. 

See the new 2018 competition guide, team application website, and the 2017 competition results . Key upcoming dates for the next competition: • November 2017 – All participating teams must complete the team application and are encouraged to submit a 3-page Project Introduction. • September 2017 to March 2018 – Webinars and building science training are offered. • April 2018 – Finalist teams complete their project submittals and compete with presentations to industry leaders. 

The Competition Collegiate teams are posed with a design problem and are asked to either create a new building design that satisfies the project requirements or redesign an existing floor plan. The mandatory performance target is the DOE Zero Energy Ready Home specification or the forthcoming Advanced Energy Design Guide For K-12 School Buildings–Achieving a Zero Energy Building. 

Each team spends 4 to 10 months designing a building to compete in one of five contests within the residential and commercial categories: 

• Residential: Suburban Single-Family Housing - Urban Single-Family Housing - Attached Housing - Small Multifamily Housing 

• Commercial: Elementary School. 

A total of 40 invited teams complete the project and attend the competition event, where they present their designs to a panel of expert jurors, compare their efforts to those of other teams, learn from presentations by thought leaders, and engage with a variety of organizations about energy careers. Competition Requirements Each team must be sponsored by a collegiate institution, be comprised of at least three students and a faculty advisor, and have a designated team lead. Student teams are encouraged to be multidisciplinary and have industry advisors, such as local home builders, to help inform their decision-making process. Details on the competition requirements will be published in the 2018 Student Design Competition Guide. Learn more at the Race to Zero competition requirements webpage.