Hopkins Student Wind Energy Team at Johns Hopkins University

The Hopkins Student Wind Energy Team, known as HSWET, is a club through Johns Hopkins University that competes in the Department of Energy’s Collegiate Wind Competition (CWC). The goal of the competition is to help college students prepare for jobs in the wind and renewable energy workforce through real-world experiences. The CWC consist of three parts: a turbine prototype and testing contest, where students design, build, and present a wind-driven power system and test the wind turbine in an on-site wind tunnel; a project development contest, where team members create a site plan and financial analysis for a hypothetical wind farm; and a connection creation contest, where teams partner with wind industry professionals, raise awareness of wind energy in local communities, and work with local media to promote the team’s accomplishments.

To date, PivotGen has worked with HSWET on the project development side, helping HSWET to an overall 2^nd place finish in the 2021 competition, as well as providing advice to the project development team that took first place in that category for the 2022 competition. HSWET has been selected to participate in Phase 2 of the 2023 competition as well. You can view details as well as a Q & A from the 2023 team on the Department of Energy Website. Over the course of the 2023 competition, PivotGen has again worked closely with the members of the project development team to help their advancement in key development and financial skills. In addition to project development, the engineering team at HSWET has established a relationship with the technical team at PivotGen, with the goal of enlisting members of the PivotGen team as industry mentors for the 2024 competition and beyond.