UW takes part in the Collegiate Wind Competition organized by the Department of Energy

The University of Wyoming was among 35 colleges and universities selected to participate in the first phase of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) 2025 Collegiate Wind Competition (CWC).

This is the second year that UW has participated in the CWC.

The CWC application at UW was led by Jacob Huerta, a senior mechanical engineering student from Culter, California, with strong support from Michael Stoellinger, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Energy Systems Engineering in the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences.

CWC 2025 focuses on the challenges of siting, scaling, and developing offshore floating wind projects. Student team members will come from the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences and the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources.

“When I got the news that the team had been selected, I was excited to be a part of it,” Huerta says. “Being selected gives the university and the students involved an opportunity to showcase what our professors have taught us.”

First launched in 2014, CWC helps prepare the wind energy workforce of the future by inviting college students from a variety of fields to represent their schools in designing, building, and testing a prototype wind turbine; developing a site plan and cost-of-energy analysis for a hypothetical wind farm; and conducting outreach to the wind energy industry, its communities, and local media.

In Phase 1, each team will develop a preliminary design and report for a prototype wind turbine and a preliminary site design for a hypothetical offshore wind farm.

Phase 1 teams will receive $2,000 to design their own technologies, create wind energy project development plans and conduct outreach activities.

In early 2025, competition organizers will use a performance-based selection process to narrow the Phase 1 teams to a maximum of 12 final selections. These teams will be invited to participate in Phase 2 of the CWC during the second half of the school year and receive an additional $15,000 to complete their projects, including building prototype wind turbines.

Finalist teams will also be invited to test their turbine models in a local wind tunnel and present their work at the final CWC event at the CLEANPOWER 2025 Conference and Exhibition in Phoenix, Monday through Thursday, May 19–22, where they will also be eligible to compete for a $30,000 prize pool.

“I was incredibly excited when I learned that Jacob’s application had been accepted,” Stoellinger says. “We will be competing in all three competitions: wind farm siting, wind turbine prototype, and community outreach. Having students from Engineering and the Haub School on the team makes the competitions a very realistic experience for the students, since both disciplines are required to successfully develop a wind project. I hope that UW’s unique track record of interdisciplinary engagement will give us a competitive advantage.”

The CWC project is funded by the Department of Energy’s Office of Wind Energy Technologies and managed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

“I’m really looking forward to pushing the boundaries of what we can achieve, learning from other teams and taking our achievements to the next level,” Huerta says. “The competition brings out the best in us and I can’t wait to see how far we can go.”

To learn more about the UW Department of Mechanical Engineering and Energy Systems, visit www.uwyo.edu/mechanical/.