The Fermi Award is bestowed by the President of the United States to an individual or individuals of international stature in recognition of exceptional scientific, technical, policy, and/or management achievements related to the broad missions of the U.S. Department of Energy and its programs. Established in 1956 by President Eisenhower and the Atomic Energy Commission, the Fermi Award is given to inspire people of all ages, through the examples of Enrico Fermi, the 1938 Nobel Laureate in physics, and the Fermi Award laureates who followed in his footsteps, to explore and open new scientific and technological realms. The Fermi Award is administered on behalf of the White House by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. A Fermi Award laureate receives:

A citation signed by the President of the United States and the Secretary of Energy;
A gold-plated medal bearing the likeness of Enrico Fermi; and
A $100,000 honorarium (if there is more than one laureate named, the honorarium is shared equally).

The MECC invites selected teams to identify a promising market within the blue economy and to determine the best marine energy application within that market to address. Over the course of school year, teams develop materials for two required contests and one optional challenge, outlined below. Teams present their work at the MECC final event, typically held in conjunction with a Spring industry event. MECC teams compete in four required contests:

• Business Plan Challenge: Teams will identify a promising market within the blue economy (either a market identified in the WPTO Powering the Blue Economy report or another potential market within the blue economy) and determine, within that market, the best marine energy application to address. Submissions in this challenge will count for approximately 28% of the total final score.
• Technical Design Challenge: Teams will evaluate the performance requirements in their chosen blue economy market by identifying and interviewing at least three potential end users. Teams will complete a detailed design of a marine-energy-powered device to serve those end users. Submissions in this challenge will count for approximately 30% of the total final score.
• In the Build and Test Challenge: Competitors will build a scaled prototype of their concept and perform a series of lab tests. The submissions in this challenge will count for approximately 16% of the total final score.
• Community Connections Challenge: Competitors will foster connections with the broader marine energy industry and with their local community. The submissions in this challenge will count for approximately 26% of the total final score.

This competition invites interdisciplinary teams of undergraduate and graduate students to:

• Develop a case study on hydropower’s role in a future power grid supported by 100% renewable energy and the associated opportunities and challenges of incorporating the hydropower fleet into this future power grid.
• Partner with hydropower industry professionals to learn about career opportunities in the hydropower industry
• Conduct educational events to raise awareness of hydropower in their communities.

The DPE Water Power Technologies Office is launching the Innovating Distributed Embedded Energy Prize (InDEEP) to encourage innovation in distributed embedded energy converter technology  to generate new, precommercial materials for wave energy conversion. This prize will challenge innovators from within and beyond wave energy to design and develop novel materials for marine energy applications that will lay the foundation for generating electricity at the grid scale.

This three-phase, two-year competition is offering a combined cash prize pool up to $2.3 million. Teams will also receive technical support, teaming support, and other forms of mentorship throughout the prize to enable their success.

Apply to Phase I by August 23.

Do you want your company featured during the annual WCS  Pitch Competition? Competition is tight as there are ten pitching slots for female-led startups. Apply now and show us what you’ve got! The 4th WCS pitch competition will feature 10 female-led startups. The competition is centered around the WCS mission statement: furthering the roles of women in growing the green economy and making a positive impact on the environment. The event is to take place on virtually on Friday, June 9th 2023.

Start-up eligibility:
– Current funding stage from seeking Seed funding to recently closed Series A
– Company is led by women, either as Founders, CEOs or in the C-Suite
– Solving a cleantech or sustainability challenge, either hardware or software

SPE Data Science and Engineering Analytics Technical Section (DSEATS) is organizing a datathon focused on geothermal energy, in collaboration with SPE Gulf Coast Section, US Department of Energy, Utah Forge, and Project InnerSpace. The SPE Geothermal Datathon 2023 is going to challenge participants to solve a geothermal engineering problem using real field data from the Utah FORGE Project. Participants are going to use modern machine learning methods to create predictive models to aid future geothermal energy production. The competition will kick-off on April 3rd, 2023.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Electricity launched the High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) Prize to incentivize new technology solutions to improve the performance and resilience of the U.S. energy grid.

The HVDC Prize invites electrical and industrial engineers, computer scientists, and power electronics researchers to develop new power and energy system solutions to improve renewable distributed generation, transmission to population centers, and integration with the U.S. energy grid.

Up to four winning teams will receive $50,000 each for proposing new HVDC technology solutions to strengthen the U.S. energy grid. An informational webinar will be held April 6. Apply by June 7.

Scientists and engineers across the world are in pursuit of creating ‘the sun in a bottle’ – a fusion power plant – with the goal of creating the ultimate clean and sustainable energy source on earth. The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) are two leading organizations in the field of fusion developing such devices, and they want to work with YOU! Apply by April 21 with an innovative new joining/bonding technology for dissimilar materials or cutting-edge, non-destructive testing equipment to verify and inspect those bonds.

The Accelerate Smart Cities Innovation Challenge brings together industry experts with innovators and startups to support smart region solutions. Over 6 weeks, teams create innovative, high-impact solutions while hearing from and collaborating with sector experts and mentors. In addition, the Challenge creates connections among key elements of the startup community and provides a novel way for municipalities to pilot cutting-edge technology solutions in priority policy or program areas. Companies are invited to pitch their solutions to a panel of judges on an innovative topic, including the following: broadband, housing, transportation, health, water, food systems, education, infrastructure, energy, and public safety.

After launching a successful Inaugural Pitch Showcase last fall, our partners at Cleantech Leaders Roundtable (CTLR) have announced a spring CTLR Angels call for pitches. CTLR is now collecting pitches from startups focused on decarbonization, advancing the energy transition, and innovative climate adaptation solutions. Startups seeking early-stage Angel funding at or below $3m will be considered. Three finalists will be invited to CTLR’s Spring 2023 Pitch Showcase to present their pitch to CTLR Angels (location/date TBA).

The $15 million Energizing Rural Communities Prize challenges individuals and organizations to develop partnership plans or innovative financing strategies to help rural or remote communities improve their energy systems and advance clean energy demonstration projects. The Energizing Rural Communities Prize has two tracks, both following a two-phase timeline:

• The Partner track—with a $10 million cash prize pool—will support plans to connect rural or remote communities to government funding, technical assistance, or a network of partners that can help implement clean energy demonstration projects.
• The Finance track—with a $5 million cash prize pool—will support plans to access capital or to develop community ownership models to help finance clean energy demonstration projects in rural or remote areas.