Energy.gov

GOOD LUCK TO THE 50 TEAMS PARTICIPATING IN THE 2017 COMPETITION!
ALSO CHECK OUT THE 2017 RACE TO ZERO COMPETITION GUIDE.

Welcome to the Race to Zero!

This is an exciting time—a time when Zero Energy Ready Homes have become readily achievable and cost-effective. By definition, these high-performance homes are so energy-efficient that renewable power can offset most or all the annual energy consumption.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Race to Zero Student Design Competition (Race to Zero) inspires collegiate students to become the next generation of building science professionals through a design challenge for zero energy ready homes. Students become part of a new leadership movement to achieve truly sustainable homes.

As part of DOE’s Building America and Zero Energy Ready Home programs, the Race to Zero was designed to advance and enhance building science curriculum in universities. 

Through this competition, future architects, engineers, construction managers, and entrepreneurs will gain the skills and experience to start careers in clean energy and generate creative solutions to real-world problems. View the 2016 competition results.

2017 Collegiate Institutions

The 50 teams participating in the next Race to Zero Competition represent 44 collegiate institutions from four countries. Eight collegiate institutions have multiple teams, and three teams consist of multiple collegiate institutions.

The collegiate institutions are:

• Anne Arundel Community College
• Appalachian State University
• Ball State University
• Centre for Environment Planning and Technology
• Colorado School of Mines
• Drexel University
• Eastern Kentucky University
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• Hope College
• Humboldt State University
• Illinois Institute of Technology
• Illinois State University
• Louisiana State University
• Miami University
• Morgan State University
• Northeastern University
• Pennsylvania College of Technology
• The Pennsylvania State University
• Prairie View A&M University
• Purdue University
• Rochester Institute of Technology
• Ryerson University
• Syracuse University
• Universidade Federal do Paraná
• University of Colorado Boulder
• University of Denver
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• University of Maryland
• University of Minnesota Twin Cities
• University of Missouri-Columbia
• University of New Haven
• The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
• University of North Texas
• University of Portland
• University of Southern California
• University of Toronto
• The University of Vermont
• University of Wisconsin-Madison
• University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
• Vanderbilt University
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• Washington University in St. Louis
• Weber State University
• Western Technical College

What Is the Race to Zero?

The Race to Zero is an annual competition, open to students and faculty from any interested collegiate institution. The competition is based upon a real-world scenario where a builder is developing a new high performance home product line or needs to update an existing product line (house plan) to a high-performance house design. College teams are posed with a design problem and are asked to either create a new house design that satisfies the project requirements or redesign an existing floor plan. The mandatory performance target is the DOE Zero Energy Ready Home specification. For more information on competition requirements and timelines, visit the Competition Requirements page or contact racetozero@ee.doe.gov.