New American-Made Challenge Prize Calls for Inclusive Energy Innovation | Article

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recently launched a $2.5-million Inclusive Energy Innovation Prize as part of the American-Made Challenges program.
The prize blends two of the Biden-Harris Administration’s major climate goals: the Justice40 initiative of having 40 percent of federal climate investment benefit disadvantaged communities and achieving net-zero emissions economy-wide by 2050.
The prize supports broader agency-wide initiatives to increase access to funding opportunities.

American -Made Challenges (AMC) were created in 2018 to accelerate domestic technological research and innovation through prize-based competitions. The program is directed and administered by NREL and funded by DOE. Other agencies can partner with DOE to also host challenges.

AMC has awarded more than $65 million in cash prizes, along with invaluable access to research facilities, mentors, and technical assistance. Competitions have ranged from innovating next-generation LED lighting, to geothermal lithium extraction, to ocean monitoring and more. This year, AMC is offering an entirely new challenge: advancing inclusion in energy innovation.

The DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and its Office of Economic Impact and Diversity launched the Inclusive Energy Innovation Prize in August 2021 to encourage an “equitable and just entrepreneurial innovation ecosystem.” The prize aims to enhance clean energy and climate technology incubation in underrepresented communities.

“Our goal is to support developing technologies in communities that will use them, and also fund the broadest possible range of solutions,” says Rukmani Vijayaraghavan, innovation and market transformation advisor at DOE’s Water Power Technologies Office. “We want to make sure that we support people from all backgrounds and not just the people at the institutions that traditionally have had access to the DOE funding ecosystem.”

The prize blends two of the Biden-Harris Administration’s major climate goals: achieving economy-wide net-zero emissions by 2050, and having 40 percent of federal climate investment benefit disadvantaged communities—the Justice40 Initiative.

A wide variety of projects are eligible to compete for the Inclusive Energy Innovation Prize, including expanding access to workforce training opportunities, providing technical assistance for clean energy-related grant applications, and fostering grassroots sustainable development projects in disadvantaged communities.

While the types of projects that can be considered are broad, the strongest applications, according to Vijayaraghavan, have a demonstrated commitment to underrepresented communities and have measurable goals and activities that advance those goals.

The competition is currently accepting applications for the first phase of the prize until February 25, 2022. Ten winners will be selected to receive $200,000 in cash awards. Winners can spend their cash award on any activities they see fit to meet their stated goal—unlike in a typical federal grant process, there are no reporting requirements.

Interest in the prize has already been significant. As of January 12, 93 teams have signed up to compete. Vijayaraghavan observed that a November 2021 webinar focused on the competition's goals and rules drew the largest number of participants she had seen for any prize to date. But outreach is still underway to create a broad and diverse applicant pool.

“Through AMC, we have something called power connectors, and these are organizations who are on contract with NREL to specifically carry out outreach activities,” says Vijayaraghavan. “We also have a JEDI [Justice Equity Diversity and Inclusion] board at NREL for AMC, where experts in the justice, equity, diversity and inclusion space can help do some of this targeted outreach.”

At the end of one year, the ten phase-one winners will be eligible to apply for phase two of the Inclusive Energy Innovation Prize. Winning criteria in phase two will be based on how successful the first year’s activity was in achieving their project goals. Three teams will win up to $500,000 each during this phase.

The Inclusive Energy Innovation Prize is one of multiple Justice40-oriented initiatives from the DOE, informed in part by feedback received through a DOE Request for Information launched in summer 2021 on removing barriers to participation in funding programs. DOE plans to incorporate findings from its Request for Information into future prizes, other grant-making opportunities, and general operations in the coming years.

Another Justice40-oriented program is the newly-launched Communities LEAP (Local Energy Action Program) pilot that has opened $16 million in funding for clean energy transition technical assistance for low-income, energy-burdened communities.

In addition, DOE’s Small Business Innovation Research program, which offers grants to small businesses to innovate and commercialize cutting-edge technologies, included a funding area for 2022 called “Community-Driven Solutions for a Just and Equitable Energy Transition.” This funding area is intended to encourage small business technology developers from underrepresented communities, or those that have substantive partnerships with underrepresented communities.

Says Vijayaraghavan, “We are confident Justice40 ideas related to an equitable transition will be a core part of our many funding opportunities moving forward.”

Author: Amber Todoroff