Ocean Observing Prize

The Powering the Blue Economy™: Ocean Observing Prize challenges innovators to integrate marine renewable energy with ocean observation platforms, ultimately revolutionizing our ability to collect the data needed to understand, map, and monitor the ocean.

A joint endeavor of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) and the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS®) program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Ocean Observing Prize includes a series of competitions, with millions of dollars in awards, to encourage rapid innovation in the fields of marine energy and ocean observations.

The prize began in 2019 with the DISCOVER Competition and is followed by the DEVELOP Competition. 
 

Team Maiden Wave Energy LLC’s Rover tests their early-stage prototype at the Naval Surface Warfare Center’s facility in Carderock, Maryland. Credit: NREL
 

Prize Goals

The purpose of this prize is to:

• Enable collection of valuable new data. Proposed innovations should increase the coverage, resolution, and/or types of ocean and atmospheric variables that can be observed, collected, processed, and transmitted, leading to improved understanding, monitoring, and management of the ocean.
• Generate sufficient power from co-located marine resources. Submissions must be able to generate enough power to meet the energy needs of the ocean observing community and prove the viability of marine energy to power ocean observing activities.
• Accelerate commercialization of marine energy systems. Traditionally, marine energy devices developed for the electrical grid can take many years to design, build, and test. The prize aims to accelerate marine energy commercialization by working at smaller scales and zeroing in on the specific energy needs of ocean observing systems.
• Forge a robust community of innovators. This prize will welcome new innovators into the marine energy and ocean observing space. It will also help form new partnerships and collaborations among industry, academia, and government to create innovative ocean observing technologies powered by marine energy.

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory are supporting DOE and NOAA on the development and administration of the prize.

The Ocean Observing Prize consists of two competitions designed to accelerate innovation in integrating marine energy with ocean observation. The first competition, the DISCOVER Competition, which is now closed, solicited novel concepts that integrated ocean observing technologies with marine energy systems. The second competition, the DEVELOP Competition, is focused exclusively on the theme of hurricane monitoring. 

DISCOVER Competition: Propose a Marine Energy Powered System

Competitors submitted novel concepts and ideas to integrate ocean observing sensors and platforms with marine energy systems. This ideation crowdsourced promising ideas that address pressing energy challenges in ocean observing as demonstrated by initial customer outreach and discovery. All concepts submitted into the prize proposed a marine energy system addressing power limitations to collecting oceanographic data and which could enable more pervasive ocean observing and encourage new growth in multiple blue economy sectors.

Competitors were evaluated on the impact of their innovation, end-user market potential, and technical feasibility. In April 2020 DOE announced 11 winners that received funding.

DEVELOP Competition: Develop a Marine Energy Powered System

The theme of the DEVELOP Competition is “Buoys and Autonomous Systems” and was informed by the DISCOVER Competition. This theme includes, but is not limited to, ideas that could use marine energy to increase platform longevity, energy availability, or other similar performance characteristics.

This competition challenges competitors to design, build, and test their experimental wave-powered ocean observing prototypes at the Naval Surface Warfare Center’s facility in Carderock, Maryland. These early-stage devices were not meant to be mature systems but demonstrate basic functionality and potential for refinement.

While this technology is still in the early stages of development, the prototypes developed during this competition could help identify future research opportunities for marine energy-powered ocean observing platforms.

Past engagement in the DISCOVER competition was not required for participation in the DEVELOP Competition.

DESIGN a Marine Energy Powered System

During the DESIGN Contest, participating teams submitted their designs of prototype systems that could be used for hurricane monitoring. Competitors were encouraged to submit more than one design concept, so long as it was materially different from the other submissions. DOE selected seven winners of the DESIGN Contest in April 2021. 

BUILD a Marine Energy Powered System

Following the DESIGN Contest, the BUILD Contest provided participating teams with the opportunity to build their early-stage experimental prototypes and test them in the Maneuvering and Seakeeping Basin—also known as the U.S. Navy’s indoor ocean—located at the Naval Surface Warfare Center’s facility in Carderock, Maryland.

During the testing portion of the BUILD Contest, teams assembled and prepared their experimental ocean observing devices, completing a dry and wet check to ensure the devices were safe and ready to go in the water. After each device cleared the checks, the crew placed each prototype one at a time in the test tank. Each prototype weathered a variety of wave conditions and had the opportunity to demonstrate its capabilities through a data-collecting maneuvering mission and a wave-powered recharging session.

Experts evaluated each wave-powered prototype in four categories, including data, maneuverability, power, and mission compliance (like operations, safety, size, and weight). In August 2022, DOE announced the three teams that won cash prizes for their prototypes' potential to power ocean observing technologies.

SPLASH Contest

During the SPLASH Contest, BUILD Contest winners have the opportunity to continue developing their wave-powered ocean observing prototypes. The final contest aims to provide a pathway for continued technology development and focuses on direct laboratory mentorship for competitors, a testing campaign customized to competitor needs, and a final cash prize for competitors that successfully leverage that mentorship and complete their testing.

To ensure testing is aligned with competitor needs, teams will have access to a network of testing facilities through the Testing Expertise and Access for Marine Energy Research (TEAMER) program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office. Experts will evaluate selected teams that successfully complete their TEAMER testing campaign to receive a cash prize. Up to three winning teams can share a prize pool of $150,000.

Who can participate?

Please review the official rules document for the application process and instructions for competing.

If you want to subscribe to updates on the prize or have any questions, you may use the contact feature on the HeroX platform, or message us directly.

If you’re not interested in competing but want to help with the prize in other ways, please feel free to contact us.

Note the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is evaluating all funding opportunities, including prize challenges, to ensure appropriate resources are allocated efficiently, and that the Department's initiatives are in line with the statutory mission of DOE and the policies and priorities of the Administration and DOE. DOE is undertaking this evaluation in accordance with all laws, regulations, and fiscal responsibility, as efficiently as possible.