EnergyTech University Prize 2024

Congratulations to the student winners of the EnergyTech University Prize 2024! The announcement was made on April 15 at the conclusion of the National Pitch Event during Zpryme’s Energy Thought Summit in Austin, Texas. 

During the event, the 28 finalist teams pitched their business plans to a panel of industry judges. At the conclusion of the event, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Technology Transitions announced the three National Winners and 13 Bonus Prize Winners. 

• First Place, awarded $50,000: Team Rise Reforming from The University of Chicago
  • Entry: Rise Reforming
• Second Place, awarded $20,000: Team ProPika from the University of Arkansas
  • Entry: Biomass to Jet Fuel 
• Third Place, awarded $10,000: Team Ion Clean PV from Hawai’i Pacific University
  • Entry: IonCleanPV: Waterless Electrostatic PV Cleaning

In addition, 13 teams took home bonus prizes—and $22,000 in cash each—in the following categories. 

Office of Technology Transitions 

• Undergraduate-Only Winner: Team GarboCarbo from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Harvard University, and the University of California, Berkeley
  • Entry: GarboCarbo: Cleaning Paper & Construction Sectors
• National Lab IP Licensing: Team EcoGrains from the University of Notre Dame
  • Entry: EcoGrains: 'Sustainable Bioenergy Solutions'  

Building Technologies Office

• Team HeatVault from the Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Entry: HeatVault: Heat Recovery as a Service

Geothermal Technologies Office

• Team Geo@MIT from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Entry: Advanced GDHC/Thermal Storage Systems at Colleges

Hydrogen Fuel Technologies Office

• Team ECHO Solutions from the University of Houston
  • Entry: Electrochemical Carbon and Hydrogen from the Ocean 

Office of Electricity

• Team FlowCellutions from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University
  • Entry: Flow Battery Diagnostics for Energy Reliability
• Team OptiGen from Duke University
  • Entry: OptiGen-State of the Art Power Generation Dispatch
• Team ClimateWatt from Rice University
  • Entry: MASTERRI: Making Electric Grids Happy & Resilient

Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management

• Team EarthFlow AI from Stanford University
  • Entry: EarthFlow AI: Accelerating Subsurface Clean Energy

Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains

• Team COMPScan from Texas A&M University 
  • Entry: COMPScan: Saving Money in the Air

Office of Nuclear Energy

• Team Molten Salt Consulting from Snow College
  • Entry: Molten Salt Consulting Inc.

Solar Energy Technologies Office: 

• Team Agrivoltaic Design Studio from Cornell University
  • Entry: Agrivoltaic Design Studio

Water Power Technologies Office

•  Team KelpNext from the University of Michigan 
  • Entry: KelpNext

Congratulations to all of the competing teams on their accomplishments throughout EnergyTech UP! And don’t forget that next year’s competition will be underway soon—check back here to stay up to date on how to get involved.

The prize’s 28 Regional and Technology Bonus Prize Finalists will be presenting their innovative ideas for commercializing a promising energy technology to a panel of industry judges on Monday, April 15, during the Energy Thought Summit in Austin, Texas. This year, teams can win any prizes they’re eligible for—not just for the categories in which they were named finalists! 

Anyone attending the conference is invited to attend the National Pitch Event—then hear the big winner announcement at that evening’s closing event! Not attending? Access the event livestream and complete event schedule on the EnergyTech UP 2024 National Pitch Event page. And be sure to check HeroX after the event to catch up on which teams earned National Winner titles and cash prizes. 

Good luck to all of this year’s finalists! 

The final event of the EnergyTech University Prize 2024 is happening April 15 at Zpryme’s Energy Thought Summit (ETS) in Austin, Texas! Learn more about the National Pitch Event, including the student pitch order, what students will win, and how to livestream the event. 

During the National Pitch Event, the competition’s 15 Regional and 13 Bonus Prize Finalists will present their innovative energy-focused business pitches to a panel of industry judges in the hopes of taking home winner status and a cash prize. 

At the conclusion of the pitches, three National Winners will be selected, and 13 Bonus Prize Winners will be announced. 

Student teams can win any of the prizes they’re eligible for—in other words, a Bonus Prize Finalist could become a National Winner, or a Regional Finalist could take home a Bonus Prize. Additionally, students are eligible to win more than one prize. 

Regardless of the outcome, the finalist teams gain valuable experience during their time at ETS. The conference offers key networking opportunities, exposure to many great educational sessions, the chance to practice pitching in front of their peers, and so much more.

Learn more about the event, view the schedule of team pitches, and get a link to the event livestream. And don’t forget to check HeroX after the event to find out which teams were named National Winners. Good luck to all the competing teams!

Faculty, don’t forget the Faculty Track Implement Phase deadline is coming up April 5 at 11:59 p.m. ET! Whether or not you previously applied to the Faculty Explorer phase, and whether or not you were selected as a Faculty Explorer, all eligible faculty members are welcome to enter their proposals to the final competition phase. Prior submission or selection is not a pre-requisite or barrier. 

Proposals should include how the proposed topic could be integrated into student activities along with a letter or letters of support signed by the relevant department chair or administrator such as an associate dean, dean, provost, or vice provost. The implementation plan submitted as part of this phase should include a timeline for implementation at the competitor’s home institution, and faculty should indicate if implementation is possible in the 2024/2025 academic year. 

Up to eight faculty competitor teams will be identified as winners, earning the following prizes:  

• 1^st place: $25,000
• 2^nd place: $15,000
• 3^rd place: $10,000
• Runners up (five in total): $2,000

To support faculty, we have hosted several training sessions. The recordings are available for review: 

• An Introduction to the Office of Technology Transitions and the Lab Partnering Service
• The Adoption Readiness Levels hosted by Dr. Vanessa Chan, Chief Commercialization Officer for the Department of Energy
• Resources and Opportunities to Work with National Labs, hosted by staff from Sandia National Lab, Argonne National Lab, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory
• An Introduction to the Business Model Canvas and it’s Utility in Teaching hosted by Energy I-Corps Instructor Nakia Melecio

Additionally, the Office of Technology Transitions will host an Office Hours session for faculty on Friday, March 29, at 2 p.m. ET. Register here.

Important update: The rules indicate that faculty winners will be announced the week of April 15 in conjunction with Zpryme’s Energy Thought Summit, where student presentations will take place at the EnergyTech UP National Pitch Event. The faculty winner announcement will now occur the week of April 22. This does not impact the submission deadline. 

If you have any questions around the Implement Phase submission, please reach out to . Don’t forget to upload your submission by 11:59 p.m. ET. Prize administrators highly recommend uploading your submission early to avoid any technical difficulties. 

We look forward to seeing the energy entrepreneurship education implementation plans submitted by faculty soon!

Congratulations to the 28 student teams selected as the EnergyTech University Prize (EnergyTech UP) 2024 Finalists! Fifteen Regional Finalists and 13 Bonus Prize finalists have been awarded $3,000 each for their business plans and will compete for increased cash prizes in the EnergyTech UP National Pitch Event this April. 

The following post-secondary student entries, out of an outstanding, innovative, and competitive pool of 225 multidisciplinary teams from 117 schools, were selected: 

Regional Finalists

• Applying PCM to Cut Down on Energy of Reefers, University of Colorado Boulder
• Blaze Power, University of California, Los Angeles
• Biomass to Jet Fuel, University of Arkansas
• Carbon Negative Chemicals from Plastic Waste, The University of Chicago
• Charge Bay, University of South Florida
• EarthFlow AI, Stanford University
• Flow Battery Diagnostics for Energy Reliability, University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University
• GarboCarbo: Decarbonizing the Paper Industry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Harvard University, and the University of California, Berkeley
• “LiSED”—Lithium Selective ElectroDialysis Systems, Rice University
• Non-Toxic Bio-Solvents for Lithium-Ion Batteries, Northeastern University and The University of Massachusetts Amherst
• On Demand Electricity, Emory University
• Oxylus Energy: Novel CO2 Electrolysis to Methanol, Yale University
• Removing the Barrier to Entry to Net-Zero Biofuels, Purdue University
• State-of-the-Art Power Generation Dispatch, Duke University
• Touchless Electrostatic System for PV Cleaning, Hawai’I Pacific University

Undergraduate-Only Finalist

• Redefining Renewable Fuel, University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania

National Lab IP Licensing Finalist

• EcoGrains – ‘Sustainable Bioenergy Solutions,’ University of Notre Dame

Technology Bonus Prize Finalists 

• Building Technologies Office: Heat Recovery as a Service, Georgia Institute of Technology
• Geothermal Technologies Office: Advanced GDHC + Thermal Storage System at Colleges, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Hydrogen Fuel Technologies Office: ECHO Solutions, University of Houston
• Office of Electricity:
  • MASTERI Commercialization, Rice University
  • Marketing Gaussian Process Voltage Distribution, Purdue University
  • ElectroFlow: Accelerating Adoption of Flow Batteries, Georgia Institute of Technology
• Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management: Helix Carbon: Unlocking CO2 as a Viable Feedstock, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Office of Manufacturing & Energy Supply Chains: COMPScan, Texas A&M University 
• Office of Nuclear Energy: Computational Molten Salt Research Company, Snow College
• Solar Energy Technologies Office: Agrivoltaic Design Studio, Cornell University
• Water Power Technologies Office: KelpNext, University of Michigan 

All finalist teams will now move onto the Refine Phase to further hone their business plans in advance of the EnergyTech UP National Pitch Event at the Energy Thought Summit in Austin, Texas, on April 15. 

After the finalist pitches conclude, up to three National Winners will be selected to share an $80,000 prize pool. Finalist teams will compete for the National Lab IP Licensing, Undergraduate-Only Team, and Technology Bonus Prizes of $22,000 each, funded by the respective DOE technology offices. 

Congratulations to all of the finalist teams and thank you to all of the student teams that presented during the Regional Pitch Events. We are excited to learn more from your innovative ideas!