The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) issues this Special Notice that it will release a request for proposals (RFP) seeking teams of undergraduate students to participate in the 2016 DOE Collegiate Wind Competition.

The Collegiate Wind Competition challenges teams to design a wind-driven system based on market research, develop a business plan to market the product, build and test the system against set requirements, and demonstrate knowledge of current and emerging issues facing the wind industry. This interdisciplinary competition brings together students in engineering, business, marketing, communications, policy, and social science fields in order to engage the future workforce in broad and unique aspects of wind energy. The competition is open to undergraduate students from 2- and 4-year institutions of higher education.

The 2016 theme will involve design and construction of a wind-driven power system to supply electricity to non-grid connected device(s) for off-grid applications. Students will develop solutions to the 2016 theme throughout the academic year, supported by one or more faculty or staff mentors. During the multi-day competition, each team will present its business and technical design plan to a diverse panel of experts, test its turbine in an on-site wind tunnel, and demonstrate knowledge about its proposed product and the wind industry through public, oral presentations. To allow testing in the wind tunnel, each team's test turbine (excluding tower and mounting bracket) must fit in a 45 cm x 45 cm x 45 cm test space.

The Collegiate Wind Competition enables DOE to support innovative and forward-thinking educational institutions with expertise in renewable energy technologies, helping to foster the growth of the future wind energy industry and workforce. This competition gives participating institutions an opportunity to showcase technical and professional capabilities as well as student ingenuity.

NREL intends to post the RFP in late October 2014 on the Federal Business Opportunities website and will expect to receive proposals by the end of the calendar year. The 2016 theme and information about available funding will be released in the RFP along with criteria that will be used to select successful proposals. Interested academic institutions are encouraged to start identifying interested faculty advisors and student team members. Information about the 2014 competition is available on the DOE Collegiate Wind Competition website.

If you are not familiar with the U.S. Department of Energy Collegiate Wind Competition and would like to hear more about this opportunity, please take part in a webinar on October 15th at 3:00 ET.  Schools who participated in the 2014 event will share their experience and there will be an opportunity to ask non-RFP related questions. Advance registration is not required. Log-in information is below. Please note that the only way to access the audio portion of this webinar is by calling in.

Audio Access

Toll-free #: 888-461-9425

Participant passcode: 3869930

Web Access

URL: https://www.mymeetings.com/nc/join.php?i=RW3109386&p=3869930&t=c