Department of Energy awards Caltech team clean energy prize

Published on July 05, 2018 by Dave Kovaleski

A team from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) won the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Cleantech University Prize, a clean energy business plan competition for colleges.

The winning team from Caltech, called ETC Solar, came up with a solar cell architecture that increases solar panel efficiency by 5 percent. This, in turn, will lower manufacturing costs. ETC’s innovative technology redirects more incoming sunlight to the solar cell surface. The competition awards $100,000 in prizes.

NUMiX Materials from Northwestern University came in second with its water purification technology to remove toxic metals from water. Overall, 23 teams from various colleges participated in the competition. The winners were selected by a panel of industry leaders and investors.

At this year’s competition, the U.S. Department of Defense sponsored a prize of $35,000 to a team for increasing long-term warfighting capabilities and enhancing mission effectiveness.

“The students competing in Cleantech UP represent some of the best our nation has to offer in innovation entrepreneurship,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry said. “We’re pleased to partner with the Department of Defense this year and feature a new track that will advance technologies to not only make our energy more affordable but also keep America safe and secure.”

A team from the University of Chicago, Beltech, took the Department of Defense prize. Beltech’s technology is a new lithium-ion battery technology that reduces battery costs by up to 50 percent and increases battery energy density up to three times.

“We are thrilled to join the Energy Department in this year’s Cleantech UP competition,” Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and Environment Lucian Niemeyer said. “These young entrepreneurs are working on solutions that will help keep our country at the forefront of innovation by enhancing our energy portfolio and strengthening our national security.”

All participating teams received one-on-one mentoring from top industry leaders, as well as entrepreneurial training from VentureWell.