Department of Energy announces $3 million solar prize to spur innovation, partnerships

The Department of Energy (DoE) announced Wednesday that it will award $3 million to encourage entrepreneurs to develop new processes and products that help kickstart solar market innovation.

The American Made Solar Prize aims to develop a network of partnerships involving entrepreneurs, private investors, universities, and DoE’s national laboratories to spur innovation and remove barriers to bringing new products commercial markets.

“The United States possesses the talent, expertise, and vision to surpass the rest of the world in solar technologies and forge a new solar energy landscape around the globe,” Energy Secretary Rick Perry said. “The American Made Solar Prize will galvanize our country’s entrepreneurs, allow them to utilize technologies and innovations developed through DOE’s early-stage research and development, and, ultimately, bring new American-made products to market.”

The prize will encourage entrepreneurs, researchers, and investors to use new technologies like small batch prototyping to expedite innovation and to use national labs’ testing and development capabilities. The prize also aims to galvanize corporate and venture capital connections to the solar industry that will be required for commercial scaling of new technologies in the later stages.

DoE committed $400 million to solar energy projects and technologies in 2017. The funds for the prize will be administered through the Solar Energy Technologies Office.