Applications now open for the American-Made Solar Prize Round 6
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) announced the American-Made Solar Prize Round 6—a $4 million prize program designed to spur innovations in U.S. solar hardware and software technologies and address challenges to rapid, equitable solar energy deployment.
Entrepreneurial students, professors, small-business owners, company staffers, researchers at national laboratories, or anyone else based in the United States with a potentially marketable solar technology solution are eligible to compete and can sign up on the HeroX prize platform. This challenge requires competitors to make progress quickly, form private-sector partnerships, and engage customers to bring their ideas to life. Competitors will have access to the American-Made Network to find partners and testing facilities to accelerate their progress.
DOE is interested in both hardware and software solar technologies. Hardware innovations should be able to be manufactured in the United States. Software innovations should help address the non-hardware costs of solar, like customer acquisition, financing, and grid integration.
Competitors will participate in three escalating challenges—the Ready!, Set!, and Go! Contests—as they develop their concept from idea to product. Individually, each competitor can win up $700,000 in cash and $150,000 in technical support vouchers over the course of the three Contests.
Competitors have the opportunity in each of the Ready!, Set!, and Go! Contests to also compete in the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Contest. Should they opt in, at each stage, the competitors will describe how their solution addresses solar market barriers faced by underserved communities and work to substantially advance their approach towards JEDI goals.
The deadline to apply for the Ready! Contest is Oct. 6, 2022.
Webinar
Register for an informational webinar on July 13, 2022 at 2 p.m. ET to discuss the prize program.
Learn more about this prize and other open funding opportunities within DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
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