Power the Community International College Design Competition 2027

The Power the Community: An International College Design Competition 2027 is a global student design competition organized by Energy Mentors. The competition challenges participants to develop an innovative, practical, affordable, reliable, resilient, and sustainable energy infrastructure design for a new community of approximately 2,000 or more families. Participants are expected to take a first-principles, interdisciplinary, and integrated approach that considers energy systems, housing, utilities, resilience, affordability, sustainability, and quality of life. The competition is open internationally and may include undergraduate students, graduate students, and individuals who are not currently pursuing a degree. Participants may compete individually or form independently organized teams, and official university sponsorship is not required. The project should include a real geographic location, an assessment of community needs supported by references, a typical housing-unit design, a community master plan emphasizing energy flows and infrastructure, regional benchmarking, appropriate engineering, architectural and economic calculations and visualizations, and a professional pitch video. The pitch video should be approximately 10–12 minutes and must not exceed 15 minutes; it must be in English or include English subtitles. The team registration deadline is March 15, 2027, and the final project submission deadline is April 15, 2027. The winning team receives the Energy Innovators Award and a US$10,000 grand prize, divided equally among the officially registered team participants.

• International

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• Sugar Land, Texas, United States

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• Competition Focus: Participants must design the energy infrastructure for a new community of approximately 2,000 or more families, integrating affordability, reliability, resilience, sustainability, energy access, housing, and community infrastructure.
• Registration Deadline: Team registration closes on March 15, 2027.
• Final Project Submission: The final project submission deadline is April 15, 2027.
• Grand Prize: The winning team receives the Energy Innovators Award and a US$10,000 grand prize. The prize is divided equally among the officially registered team participants.
• Real-World Location: The proposed community must be geographically located on an actual parcel of land that could realistically be developed. Teams should account for real-world local conditions and needs.
• Project Deliverables: The submission should include the community location, a referenced community-needs assessment, a typical housing-unit design, a community master plan emphasizing energy flows and infrastructure, regional benchmarking, appropriate engineering, architectural and economic calculations and renderings, and a pitch video.

• Stipend: $0/not_applicable
• Tuition coverage: 0%
• Grand Prize – Energy Innovators Award · €10,000 · Basis: Competition Performance / Judges' Decision · One-time · The winning team receives the Energy Innovators Award and a US$10,000 grand prize. The prize is divided equally among the officially registered team participants. In addition to the cash prize, participants gain an opportunity to showcase their work to industry experts, demonstrate technical and creative capabilities, develop professional connections and gain experience in sustainable energy and energy infrastructure design.

• International Eligibility: The competition is open internationally. Participants may include undergraduate students, graduate students, and individuals who are not currently degree candidates.
• Individual Participation: Participants may enter individually. The official registration page states that participation is open to single participants as well as teams.
• Team Participation: Participants may form teams independently. There is no fixed team size stated by Energy Mentors, and official university, college, club, or organizational sponsorship is not required.
• Interdisciplinary Participation: Students and participants from engineering, architecture, planning, economics, business, environmental science, public policy, design, construction, sustainability and related disciplines can contribute to the challenge.
• Professional and Faculty Assistance: Teams may seek advice and knowledge from faculty members, graduate students, and working professionals, but these individuals should not directly produce the team's competition results or deliverables.
• No Minimum GPA Specified: Energy Mentors does not specify a minimum GPA requirement in the published competition eligibility information.

• Application deadline: Mar 15, 2027
• Note: Team registration deadline: March 15, 2027. Final project submission deadline: April 15, 2027.

• Architecture
• Business
• Business Analytics
• Chemical Engineering
• Civil Engineering
• Computer Science
• Data Science
• Design
• Economics
• Electrical Engineering
• Energy Engineering
• Engineering

1. 1

   Review the official competition requirements

   Read the official Power the Community competition information, eligibility requirements, design challenge and submission guidelines before registering.

2. 2

   Form a team or participate individually

   Participants may enter individually or form a team. Teams may be independently organized and do not require official university sponsorship.

3. 3

   Choose and study a real community location

   Select an actual parcel of land that could realistically be developed as the proposed community. The design must be geographically located and should reflect real-world local conditions and needs.

4. 4

   Register before March 15, 2027

   Complete the official Energy Mentors registration form with the participant/team information before the registration deadline.

5. 5

   Develop the community and energy infrastructure design

   Prepare the required design deliverables, including the community needs assessment, housing-unit design, community layout, energy infrastructure, benchmarks, calculations and supporting visualizations.

6. 6

• Competition Project Submission — The final submission should contain the required competition deliverables, including the community geolocation, referenced needs assessment, typical housing design, community and energy infrastructure design, benchmarking, supporting engineering/architectural/economic calculations and renderings, and a pitch video.

• Website
• Official Scholarship Page
• Official University Page