The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is looking for innovative back-up power solutions that will help critical facilities continue to operate during electrical outages.
Donor Name: Department of Homeland Security
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Challenge
Deadline: 08/08/2023
Size of the Grant: $850,000
Details:
The Clean Power for Hours Challenge aims to find innovative solutions that can help facility providers of essential services to keep operating during a power outage.
Winning solutions will be affordable, easy-to-use, and environmentally friendly power sources that can provide on-site power generation for critical facilities that provide essential services to communities across the United States. This Challenge is seeking to identify and catalyze existing cutting-edge technologies with a Technical Readiness Level (TRL) of 6 or higher that can be used to continue essential facility operations in an event of a power failure or disruption lasting more than 36-hours. TRL refers to the method for determining the maturity of technology.
This is particularly important to National Critical Functions (NCFs) that support essential community lifelines services (such as basic needs like emergency services, urgent healthcare, and food/water).
These technologies also should be capable of working with on-site renewable power generation including alternative energy sources such as solar Photovoltaics (PV) arrays and small-scale wind power or operating as part of a virtual power plant or similar concept and be able to coordinate with other distributed energy resources.
This Challenge is part of the DHS effort to implement a proactive approach to climate change adaptation and resilience. This is the second in a series of DHS prize competitions to address hazards posed by climate change. This Challenge will support DHS’s mission on climate change resilience and adaptation, and work with the energy sector and other critical infrastructure owners and operators to find solutions for back-up power generation during a disaster.
Prizes
- Prize total: $850,000
- This Challenge is in two stages. In Stage 1 the judges will review Challenge submissions and choose:
- Finalists
- Up 15 Stage 1 finalists will be selected during this stage. Each finalist will receive $10,000. The Stage 1 finalists will automatically advance to Stage 2.
- Stage 2 includes a live demonstration of your solution and a second judging process. The judges will choose the Prize Winners. These will be selected based on meeting submission instructions, eligibility, the Challenge Rules, Terms, and Conditions, Stage 1, Stage 2 judging criteria, and applicability to a Use Case(s).
- Prize Winners:
- Grand prize winner: $400,000
- Runner up winner: $200,000
- Up to two Honorable mentions: $50,000
- Finalists
- Non-monetary prizes
- They also may consider winning submissions for future opportunities such as: assistance with mentors to refine or advanced proposed solutions; connections to technology accelerators or other innovation development programs; connections to existing developers and/or manufacturers; and/or, opportunities to speak at conferences with broader security audiences.
Eligibility Criteria
- This Challenge is open to all individuals (non-felons) over the age of 18, U.S. Citizens or legal permanent residents at the time of submission, and to all legal U.S. incorporated entities whose primary place of business is in the U.S. Eligibility is subject to verification by DHS before cash prizes are awarded.
- Officers, directors, advisory board members, employees, and support contractors of DHS and Challenge judges are ineligible to compete in this Challenge. Likewise, members of their immediate family (spouses, children, stepchildren, siblings, stepsiblings, parents, stepparents), and persons living in the same household, whether or not related, are not eligible to participate in any portion of this Challenge.
Note: The members of an individual’s household include any other person who shares the same residence as such individual for at least three months out of the year.
For more information, visit Department of Homeland Security.
