Going for Gold—Announcing the Solar Decathlon 2025 Design Challenge Teams!

122 teams from 93 collegiate institutions are going for gold as competition begins for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Decathlon® 2025 Design Challenge, DOE’s longest-running student competition.

The Design Challenge encourages collegiate teams to create energy-efficient, resilient, and sustainable building designs that meet community needs through affordable upgrades, existing building retrofits, resiliency improvements, and more. Innovative solutions such as these play a vital role in helping the United States meet DOE’s buildings decarbonization blueprint goal of reducing building greenhouse gas emissions by 65% by 2035 and 90% by 2050.

“Students will compete with solutions for advanced high-performance, low-carbon buildings that address climate change through the built environment,” said Holly Jamesen Carr, Solar Decathlon lead in the Building Technologies Office. “We are particularly excited about the new Open Commercial division, which, for the first time in Design Challenge history, allows teams to design any kind of commercial building they wish.”

Explore the participating teams map to see if your alma mater or a nearby collegiate institution will be competing!

Design Challenge teams will present their residential or commercial building designs at the virtual semifinal competition event in February 2025. Selected finalist teams will then compete in person or virtually during the final competition event, hosted at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, on April 25–27, 2025.

This year’s teams represent 19 countries and 27 states/districts, with 25 new collegiate institutions and 68 returning institutions.

The Building Technologies Office welcomes the 93 collegiate institutions competing in the 2025 Design Challenge:

• Al Hussein Technical University—Amman, Jordan
• Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike—Ikwo, Nigeria
• Alexandria University—Alexandria, Egypt
• Aligarh Muslim University—Aligarh, India
• Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt Üniversitesi—Ankara, Turkey
• Appalachian State University—Boone, North Carolina
• Arizona State University—Tempe, Arizona
• Ball State University—Muncie, Indiana
• California State Polytechnic University, Pomona—Pomona, California
• College of the Canyons—Santa Clarita, California
• Colorado State University—Fort Collins, Colorado
• Concordia University—Montreal, Quebec
• Dartmouth College—Hanover, New Hampshire
• Daytona State College—Daytona Beach, Florida
• Dr. Bhanuben Nanavati College of Architecture For Women—Pune, India
• École Supérieure de Management, de Télécommunication et d’Informatique—Rabat, Morocco
• Ferris State University—Big Rapids, Michigan
• Gallaudet University—Washington, D.C.
• Gebze Teknik Üniversitesi—Gebze, Turkey
• Georgia Institute of Technology—Atlanta, Georgia
• Harvard University—Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Howard University—Washington, D.C.
• Illinois Institute of Technology—Chicago, Illinois
• Indian Institute of Technology Bombay—Mumbai, India
• Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur—Kharagpur, India
• Indian Institute of Technology Madras—Chennai, India
• İstanbul Üniversitesi—Istanbul, Turkey
• Kennesaw State University—Marietta, Georgia
• King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals—Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
• Manhattan University—Riverdale, New York
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology—Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Missouri University of Science and Technology—Rolla, Missouri
• Monash University—Clayton, Australia
• Morgan State University—Baltimore, Maryland
• Myongji University—Seoul, South Korea
• National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli—Tiruchirappalli, India
• National University of Sciences and Technology—Islamabad, Pakistan
• Navajo Technical University—Crownpoint, New Mexico
• New Jersey Institute of Technology—Newark, New Jersey
• New York City College of Technology—Brooklyn, New York
• Northeastern University—Boston, Massachusetts
• Northwestern University—Evanston, Illinois
• Pennsylvania College of Technology—Williamsport, Pennsylvania
• Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú—Lima, Perú
• Queen's University—Kingston, Ontario
• State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry—Syracuse, New York
• Syracuse University—Syracuse, New York
• Tehran University of Art—Tehran, Iran
• The American University in Cairo—Cairo, Egypt
• The Catholic University of America—Washington, D.C.                   
• The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art—New York, New York
• The Pennsylvania State University—University Park, Pennsylvania
• The University of Arizona—Tucson, Arizona
• The University of British Columbia—Vancouver, British Columbia
• The University of British Columbia Okanagan—Kelowna, British Columbia
• The University of Oklahoma—Norman, Oklahoma
• The University of Texas at Arlington—Arlington, Texas
• The University of Texas at Austin—Austin, Texas
• The University of Texas at San Antonio—San Antonio, Texas
• Thomas Jefferson University—Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Thompson Rivers University—Kamloops, British Columbia
• Union College of Union County, NJ—Cranford, New Jersey
• Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México—Mexico City, Mexico
• Universitat Politècnica de València—Valencia, Spain
• University of California, Los Angeles—Los Angeles, California
• University of California, Riverside—Riverside, California
• University of Canterbury—Christchurch, New Zealand
• University of Central Florida—Orlando, Florida
• University of Cincinnati—Cincinnati, Ohio
• University of Colorado Boulder—Boulder, Colorado
• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign—Urbana, Illinois
• University of Minnesota Twin Cities—Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota
• University of Missouri—Columbia, Missouri
• University of New Hampshire—Durham, New Hampshire
• University of North Florida—Jacksonville, Florida
• University of Oregon—Eugene, Oregon
• University of Ottawa—Ottawa, Ontario
• University of Regina—Regina, Saskatchewan
• University of Salford—Salford, United Kingdom
• University of Southern California—Los Angeles, California
• University of Tehran—Tehran, Iran
• University of the District of Columbia—Washington, D.C.
• University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg—Johannesburg, South Africa
• University of Victoria—Victoria, British Columbia
• University of Washington—Seattle, Washington
• University of Washington Tacoma—Tacoma, Washington
• University of Waterloo—Waterloo, Ontario
• University of Wyoming—Laramie, Wyoming
• Virginia Commonwealth University—Richmond, Virginia
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University—Blacksburg, Virginia
• Washington Alexandria Architecture Center—Alexandria, Virginia
• Wentworth Institute of Technology—Boston, Massachusetts
• West Virginia University—Morgantown, West Virginia

Over its lifetime, the Solar Decathlon has challenged more than 27,000 students to create high-performance, efficient, and affordable buildings powered by renewables while promoting student innovation, STEM education, and workforce development opportunities in the buildings industry.