The Powering the Blue Economy™: Ocean Observing Prize challenged 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 included a series of competitions, with millions of dollars in awards, to encourage rapid innovation in the fields of marine energy and ocean observations.
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 COMPETITIONS
The Ocean Observing Prize consisted 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, focused exclusively on the theme of hurricane monitoring. The challenge theme may vary in future iterations of the prize.
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 diverse 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.
Guidelines
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.
At EERE, we understand that due to the coronavirus outbreak, many of us have had to make adjustments to our business operations and practices in order to safeguard the health and safety of our communities. Due to the extraordinary circumstances in which we now find ourselves, EERE is reevaluating prize timelines. Further information coming soon.
Be sure to submit your concepts for the DISCOVER Competition TODAY, February 12, by 8:59pm PST. Should you have any questions or issues during the submission process please email OceanObserving@nrel.gov.
There have been several inquiries regarding the need for a partner for the Ocean Observing DISCOVER Competition. If you are interested in finding a partner for your team, please email with the information listed within the Partnership Matching Template resource.
The information includes:
Your HeroX name
Your contact Info (email/phone/message via HeroX)
I am looking for:
Your affiliation
Intended application of idea
Ocean resource being utilized
Brief description what you are looking for (<150 words)
Once this information is received the Prize Administration team will update the “Potential Partners” worksheet located in the Resources tab on the Ocean Observing Prize HeroX page. Updates to the worksheet will be made within one business day of your request. Keep watch as updates are made and feel free to reach out to anyone listed with your teaming inquiry.
As always, reach out with your questions, and good luck in these final weeks of preparation before the Wednesday, February 12 deadline.
Are you looking for insights on how to put together a strong application?
We’re hosting a webinar tomorrow at 10am MT to give context for the prize, outline some best practices for applying, and answer any of your questions about the rules.
