For this year’s solar district cup hosted by the department of energy, I served as the financial co-lead and battery storage lead. I worked with a multidisciplinary team of Ohio State Students to use industry software like Aurora Solar and ReOPT lite along with current research to design, model, and analyze a solar plus storage system for a district use case of Auraria Colorado Higher Education Campus. Starting back in fall of 2020 we began our initial design and financial analysis which we submitted and were named as finalists. Then starting in the spring we began to add our battery storage elements to our design. Looking at the resiliency of the system we were able to select the best battery for the system. As part of this project competition we had to design the most optimal solar system in regard to solar panels, energy production, design elements, environmental zoning, integration with the existing grid, battery storage, and financial feasibility. I got to learn even more this second year of the competition about tax regulations on solar systems and the different types of solar developer and user relationships like power purchase agreements. For the financial models I got to use industry tools including SAM, and NREL CREST financial models. As the financial co-lead I analyzed our system for multiple financial cases and was able to factor in different elements to find a financially sound purchase agreement. At the end of spring, we submitted our full project outline and presented to judges and solar experts. Overall, we won third place for our district! So proud of all of our accomplishments! Below you can see the video of our final presentation: