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.

The goal of the Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program is to prepare graduate students for science, technology, engineering, or mathematics  careers critically important to the DOE Office of Science mission, by providing graduate thesis research opportunities at DOE laboratories.  The SCGSR program provides supplemental awards to outstanding U.S. graduate students (US citizens or lawful permanent residents) to pursue part of their graduate thesis research at a DOE laboratory/facility in areas that address scientific challenges central to the Office of Science mission. The research opportunity is expected to advance the graduate students’ overall doctoral thesis while providing access to the expertise, resources, and capabilities available at the DOE laboratories/facilities.

REpowering Schools (REpS) is partnering with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to offer seed-funding up to $6,000 for universities, colleges and community colleges related to wind energy.  Project expenses could include:

• Research materials and expenses
• Travel to support research and engagement
• Supplies or parts for research platforms for courses (such as simple wind tunnels or bench dynamometers for capstone classes)
• Curricula development
• Expenses related to the publication of research

Join the world’s largest multi-sector commercialization program for emerging deep technologies. Showcase, pitch and connect your innovations for licensing and investment opportunities with leading corporate, investment and federal prospectors.