An interdisciplinary team of Cornell University graduate students won the Department of Energy’s Office of Solar Energy Technologies Bonus Award in the 2024 EnergyTech University Prize competition. The EnergyTech University Prize includes both student and faculty teams and aims to foster clean energy entrepreneurship.
From left: Students Eve Qiang, Henry Williams and Mike Liao received the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technology Office Bonus Award in the 2024 EnergyTech Collegiate Award Competition, which ended April 15, 2024.
Henry J. Williams and Mike Liao, doctoral students in the Sibley Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering supervised by Irving Porter Church Professor of Engineering Max Zhang, and teammate Eve Qiang, an MBA student at Johnson Cornell Tech, were recognized for their work with the Agrivoltaic Design Studio, which also came with a $22,000 prize.
Agrivoltaics is a sustainable agricultural technique that combines agriculture with solar energy production. The company’s Agrivoltaics Design Studio is a software tool that enables solar project developers to work with farmers to design solar panel arrays for their farmland that take into account the soil, sun, and moisture conditions of their specific land. In this way, solar projects are beneficial for both farmers and the power grid.
The competition began in February with 225 teams participating. After going through the “Exploration” and “Refinement” phases in February and March, Cornell teams traveled to Austin, Texas in April to participate in the “Proposal” phase, where 28 finalist teams presented their business plans to a panel of industry judges. At the end of the event, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Technology Transition announced three national winners and 13 special award winners.
“We see immense value in supporting the next generation of clean energy leaders through EnergyTech UP,” said Vanessa Z. Chan, the office’s chief commercialization officer. “These teams are working to develop energy technologies and business opportunities that are feasible, equitable and scalable. They have the potential to have a significant impact on the clean tech industry, and we’re proud to provide resources to help amplify their ideas.”
Agrivoltaic Design Studio’s design concept was inspired by work by Zhang’s research group, which was supported by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the U.S. Department of Energy and a Cornell Atkinson Sustainability Graduate Research Grant. Williams, Liao and Zhang received help preparing a business plan and presentation from Cornell as part of the SC Johnson College of Business’ Green Technology Innovation Fellowship program, which pairs graduate research students with MBA candidates.
“This competition gave us further motivation to thoroughly flesh out our business model and develop a pitch deck,” Williams said. “We spent a lot of time working with our mentors and our entrepreneurs-in-residence on our pitch deck, and we also created a 10-page business plan for the final competition.”
Despite the move toward green energy in the United States, many agricultural counties have recently implemented policies that make it difficult to develop large-scale solar projects, as they fear the agricultural nature of their communities will be lost. “Our Agrivoltaic Design Studio allows solar project developers to sit down with landowners during the project design phase to create a design that takes into account the site’s exact topography and microclimate,” Liao says.
“This is changing the way solar developers operate. Our software allows them to go into the community and really engage and co-design with farmers and landowners,” Williams added.
“We strongly believe that agrivoltaics has great potential in increasing equity in both agriculture and the solar power industry,” said Qian. “The responsible adoption of agrivoltaics depends on thorough research and verified data.”
The team hopes to continue developing the technology and begin pilot projects this year, with the eventual goal of bringing a product to market.