The American-Made Net Load Forecasting Prize is open to forecasting industry organizations that cater to utilities, system operators, and power plant owners, as well as academic teams with machine learning capabilities that are interested in forecasting. Competitors are required to submit daily day-ahead probabilistic net load forecasts, with an hourly resolution, over the course of four weeks and across multiple distinct climatic locations in the United States. The Solar Forecast Arbiter will be used to evaluate how well each competitor’s forecasts performed compared to a benchmark forecast. By using the Arbiter for comparing forecast performance, the Prize helps demonstrate the feasibility of fair, transparent, and high-quality evaluations of probabilistic net load forecasts using a publicly available open-source platform.

This prize offers up to $600,000 in cash prizes, with three anticipated winners and three anticipated runners-up.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) and the DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) announced more than $18 million in available funding for research and development projects that focus on the characterization, treatment, and management of produced water—or wastewater associated with oil and natural gas development and production—as well as management of legacy wastewater associated with coal-based thermal electric power generation facilities, primarily coal combustion residuals waste streams. Apply by April 12, 2023.

SPARK Virginia works to build an innovation cluster creating solutions for the entire value chain – making it safer and easier to build, generate, transmit, and consume nuclear and hydrogen energy in Virginia and beyond. SPARK Virginia kicks off in February 2023 with a set of two public innovation challenges hosted in the Richmond and Hampton Roads areas that will award early commercialization grants to inventors and engineers in select hard-tech areas to develop preliminary business models exploring the commercial viability of their technology.

TechConnect World enables you to connect with the largest science and technology funding in the world. Connect with top scientists, corporate, federal and VC prospectors and interact with research, investments, licensing, and partnering opportunities.

There are two opportunities for startups to be featured at the TechConnect World: Submit a poster by March 31 or submit your innovation by February 24.

1. Climate Change – We are looking for disruptive innovations that can decarbonise energy generation and industries, as well as capture and utilise carbon to create scalable products for global markets. We also want solutions that address ocean challenges including  innovative models that restore and regenerate coastal and marine ecosystems in Southeast Asia.

2. Food & Nutrition – We are looking for disruptive innovations that can establish a circular urban agriculture or aquaculture system, or alternative protein system.  We are seeking innovative and breakthrough technological solutions to maximise production efficiency and minimise resource requirements.

The Fourth Revolution Awards celebrates regional manufacturing and hardtech entrepreneurs for their leadership and innovation as the industry stands on the
brink of a new technological revolution. Winners receive:

• Two 6-month shared workspace memberships to mHUB
• Recognition to mHUB’s network of more than 50,000 manufacturing and innovation influencers
• Opportunities to connect with local leadership
• Local and national visibility

Buildings UP aims to build capacity to rapidly and equitably transform U.S. buildings. Teams will submit innovative concepts to leverage funding to equitably transform a wide variety of buildings across diverse geographies. As teams progress through the prize, they will receive cash prizes and technical assistance to help bring their ideas to life.

In Phase 1: “Concept”, teams may apply to one of two pathways: Equity-Centered Innovation or Open Innovation. Winners of both pathways will be eligible to advance to Phase 2 and access technical assistance.

Equity-Centered Innovation Pathway: Concepts to deliver scalable and replicable upgrades to buildings in disadvantaged communities, low- and moderate-income households, and underserved commercial, nonprofit, and public buildings. Phase 1 Equity-Centered Innovation winners will each receive a $400,000 cash prize.

Open Innovation Pathway: Concepts for replicable and scalable solutions that addresses a geographic area or building type. Phase 1 Open Innovation winners will each receive a $200,000 cash prize.

There is also an Application Support Prize, where up to 50 winning teams will be awarded $5,000 and up to 10 hours of technical support. Applicants are intended to be those who might not otherwise have the staff capacity, time, or expertise to submit a full Phase 1 submission — such as first-time applicants for BTO funding and community-based organizations (CBOs) representing or serving areas with equity-eligible buildings.

The American-Made Community Power Accelerator Prize is designed to fast-track the efforts of new, emerging, and expanding solar developers and co-developers to learn, participate, and grow their operations to support multiple successful community solar projects.  The goal of this prize is to grow a robust ecosystem of community solar project developers that incorporate meaningful benefits into projects across the United States.

This prize has three phases: Ready! Set! and Grow! By the end of the prize, competitors will be ready to engage with the Community Power Accelerator online platform, which provides a place for competitors to shop their credit-ready projects around to verified project developers, investors, and philanthropic organizations.

The Community Power Accelerator Prize is open to U.S. community solar developers, including new developers, co-developers (organizations who are partnering with a project developer), or developers who are expanding their community solar operations.

The American-Made Community Power Accelerator Prize is designed to fast-track the efforts of new, emerging, and expanding solar developers and co-developers to learn, participate, and grow their operations to support multiple successful community solar projects.  The goal of this prize is to grow a robust ecosystem of community solar project developers that incorporate meaningful benefits into projects across the United States.

This prize has three phases: Ready! Set! and Grow! By the end of the prize, competitors will be ready to engage with the Community Power Accelerator online platform, which provides a place for competitors to shop their credit-ready projects around to verified project developers, investors, and philanthropic organizations.

The Community Power Accelerator Prize is open to U.S. community solar developers, including new developers, co-developers (organizations who are partnering with a project developer), or developers who are expanding their community solar operations.

The American-Made Community Power Accelerator Prize is designed to fast-track the efforts of new, emerging, and expanding solar developers and co-developers to learn, participate, and grow their operations to support multiple successful community solar projects.  The goal of this prize is to grow a robust ecosystem of community solar project developers that incorporate meaningful benefits into projects across the United States.

This prize has three phases: Ready! Set! and Grow! By the end of the prize, competitors will be ready to engage with the Community Power Accelerator online platform, which provides a place for competitors to shop their credit-ready projects around to verified project developers, investors, and philanthropic organizations.

The Community Power Accelerator Prize is open to U.S. community solar developers, including new developers, co-developers (organizations who are partnering with a project developer), or developers who are expanding their community solar operations.

The American-Made High Temperature Geothermal Geophone Prize is designed to catalyze the development of high temperature, downhole capable seismic monitoring for enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) in the American instrumentation community. This is accomplished through a series of prize competitions and the development of a diverse and powerful support network that leverages national laboratories, energy incubators, and other resources from across the United States.  The contests provide a total of $3.65 million in incentives—$2.55 million in cash prizes, $1.1 million in vouchers. Winning Phase 2: Design! is required to compete in Phase 3: Build!; however, new teams may join during Phase 2: Design! without competing in  Phase 1: Concept!.

The Direct Air Capture (DAC) Commercial Prize awards cash prizes to teams that already have a technology that can capture CO2 and scale it up to achieve a removal target. Teams will win increasingly larger prizes as they successfully scale up their DAC technologies over the course of four phases. Each phase requires compounding progress of the team’s DAC technology development.