2020 Collegiate Wind Competition Goes Virtual

The Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) recently announced that its 2020 Collegiate Wind Competition (CWC), originally planned as part of the American Wind Energy Association CLEANPOWER Conference (which has been canceled), will now be held via webinar in May and June to accommodate health concerns amid the coronavirus outbreak. 

During this event, the 12 participating teams will showcase the deliverables they created for the competition. “As the next generation of the wind energy workforce, these students and their contributions are critical to continued growth and innovation in the wind and renewable energy industries,” said Elise DeGeorge, competition operations manager at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, in the press release. “These students have worked so hard over the last year to prepare for the CWC. We needed to find a way for them to present their work. We’re thankful to have the tools that make this possible.”

In the virtual format, participants will present their turbine designs, technical design reports and project development plans to CWC judges via webinar. Because the turbine tests will not take place this year, winners will be declared only for the project development and the turbine design portions of the competition.

Given the variety of challenges students face in the wake of the pandemic, the CWC organizing team will support each participating team to ensure that the students are able to maximize their learning experience in wind energy. Participating CWC team members are encouraged to use virtual meeting tools as they prepare for the competition, and to use the CWC’s internal communication tools to ask questions of the organizing team.

“The CWC is an exciting event for college students hoping to break into the wind industry. Employers are also searching for new talent,” DeGeorge added. “While we are disappointed that the competition will not be held in person this year, we are optimistic that many of the same benefits will be realized.”