Winning the Solar Prize is a big deal. But what does it take to become a winning solar startup?

Most Solar Prize competitors enter with little more than a concept and initial research. Few have worked with national labs or received funding of any sort for their innovation. Some might not even have experience in the traditional solar industry. 

No matter how winning teams start, they use the Solar Prize as a catalyst to make rapid progress on their technologies. 

In September 2021, AeroShield Materials and the r&d lab were named winners of the Solar Prize Round 4. They, too, were an example of early-stage startups that used the Solar Prize to spin up their business, strategy, and innovation in just a year, earning a total of $650,000 in cash prizes and $150,000 in technical support vouchers for their hard work and ingenuity. 

Take a look at where these teams started and how the Solar Prize put their innovations on the fast-track to market. 

Read the full story on AeroShield Materials and the r&d lab here

Congratulations to these two teams on their success thus far—we can’t wait to see how far you go! 

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