New innovations |
Northern Arizona University was the overall winner of the 2024 Hydropower Collegiate Competition
Innovative winners
The US Department of Energy is hoping to inspire future generations of workers within the hydropower and marine sectors through its college competitions that are searching for innovative solutions to industry concerns
Below: With more than 25% of the US hydro workforce set to retire in coming years, the Collegiate Competitions aim to inspire the next generation of workers
THE WINNERS OF THIS year’s US Department of Energy’s Hydropower Collegiate Competition (HCC) were recently announced. Northern Arizona University was the overall winner, followed by Johns Hopkins University and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo was in third place. Now in its second year, the competition asks multidisciplinary student teams to tackle common challenges in hydropower, giving them real-world exposure to the industry and a head start in a clean energy career. With more than a quarter of the US’ hydropower workers set to reach retirement age in the coming years, the industry recognises it needs a new generation to fill these jobs. The HCC’s aim is to train, equip, and inspire this next generation of the hydropower workforce. “Hydropower has an important role in clean
energy, and these winning teams bring the ingenuity, enthusiasm and vision we need for discovering how to tap its full potential,” said Jeff Marootian, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. “And since the competition is designed to spark interest in these careers, it’s very exciting to imagine the possibilities with this calibre of talent leading our future clean energy workforce.” This year’s competition asked teams to develop
18 | July 2024 |
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solutions to add power-generating infrastructure to existing non-powered dams. With less than 3% of the US’ more than 90,000 dams producing electricity, there is a significant opportunity for expansion with new hydropower.
Marine energy This year’s winner of the Marine Energy Collegiate
Competition was the University of New Hampshire, repeating its win from the 2023 competition. Purdue University took second place, and Oakland University and Oregon State University tied in third. Now in its fifth year, the annual Marine Energy Collegiate Competition (MECC) challenges multidisciplinary collegiate teams to develop solutions that can help power sectors in the blue economy, like aquaculture or ocean observation. Students gain hands-on experience by identifying markets for marine energy technologies and designing their own device. “Marine energy resources are abundant,
predictable and have immense potential to provide clean energy to our grid and the offshore economy,” said Marootian. “The students participating in this competition are paving the way for this burgeoning new industry, and we look forward to their future achievements.”
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