World KidWind Challenge 2025
What is the World KidWind Challenge?
Each year KidWind invites top performing teams from wind and solar Challenges to compete in the World KidWind Challenge. We host this large and prestigious event alongside our partners at American Clean Power Association’s CLEANPOWER and the Collegiate Wind Competition. The location changes each year. 2025 Worlds will be in Phoenix, AZ!
The KidWind team extends invites to top performing teams from in-person Challenges across the US and world and the Online KidWind Challenge. Students in three grade-level divisions participate in the KW Challenge: 4-5th, 6-8th, and 9-12th.
Teams travel to Worlds to participate in several competition elements, attend fun events with students from other states, and explore opportunities to continue their passion for a clean energy future by engaging with the Collegiate Wind Competition projects & CLEANPOWER exhibition.
Types of Challenges
Wind Challenge
➜ Refine wind turbine design & bring to Worlds
➜ Test turbines in several wind tunnels with different wind speeds
➜ Present turbine design to panel of judges
➜ Participate in Instant Challenges & Quizbowl
Solar Challenge
➜ Refine solar home design & bring to Worlds
➜ Test solar home in Solar Test Environment
➜ Present solar home design to panel of judges
➜ Participate in Instant Challenges & Quizbowl
Worlds Competition Elements
Wind Turbine Testing
➜ Teams test their wind turbines in wind tunnels to be evaluated on the total energy produced over a 30 second trial period, measured in Joules.
➜ Teams test wind turbines in 3-4 wind tunnels, each set to a different wind speed
Solar Testing
➜ Teams test their solar home under the Solar Test Environment simulating how their project would perform in the sun.
➜ During testing teams demonstrate how the different aspects of the project perform.Judging Session
➜ Teams present their project to a panel of judges, discussing their building process and demonstrating what they learned.
➜ Judges ask students questions, pushing teams to defend their design choices.Instant Challenges
➜ Teams participate in an on-the-spot test of knowledge, skills, problem-solving, and teamwork without prior preparation.
➜ Each year KidWind creates new clean energy-related Instant Challenges.Quizbowl
➜ Teams test their combined knowledge of clean energy in a timed quiz.
➜ Students prepare by studying big questions related to clean energy topics.