The Equitable and Affordable Solutions to Electrification (EAS-E) Home Electrification Prize provides up to $2.4 million in prizes for innovative solutions that advance electrification retrofits of residential homes across all building types and geographies.
Donor Name: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Prize
Deadline: 03/08/2023
Size of the Grant: $75,000
Details:
The goal of the EAS-E Prize is to support a suite of design solutions, tools, and/or technology innovations that make electrification more affordable and accessible in existing U.S. homes. Through this prize, the U.S. Department of Energy Building Technologies Office aims to create more opportunities and successes for electrification of the U.S. housing stock with a focus on equitable solutions for all homeowners—not only through affordability, but also by enabling solutions specific to dwellings more common in low-income and under-resourced communities. In some homes, load reduction strategies (e.g., building envelope upgrades) can also improve the reliability, affordability, and performance of electrification upgrades.
Design solutions/tools and technology innovations are eligible for the prize, with the goal to spur an ecosystem of products and approaches that work for every homeowner ready to make the switch. Low-power electrification solutions that limit the electricity demand of individual appliances or the whole dwelling (e.g., by avoiding electrical panel upgrades or controlling coincident loads) are strongly encouraged, because of their potential benefits to the project cost and speed of installation and their wider grid impacts. The innovations developed and launched in response to this prize will benefit the broader housing retrofit market by advancing building electrification solutions that are fast, easy, and scalable.
Through this prize, the U.S. Department of Energy Building Technologies Office aims to create more opportunities and successes for electrification of the U.S. housing stock with a focus on equitable solutions for all homeowners—not only through affordability, but also by enabling solutions specific to dwellings more common in low-income and under-resourced communities. In some homes, load reduction strategies (e.g., building envelope upgrades) can also improve the reliability, affordability, and performance of electrification upgrades.
The EAS-E Home Electrification Prize consists of two phases:
Phase 1. Concept Paper
This phase is focused on presenting the proposed solution(s), comparing them with current practice, forming a capable team, identifying market opportunities, outlining risks, and describing the intended Phase 2 demonstration. Up to five Phase 1 winners will receive a $5,000 cash prize each and will be eligible to compete in Phase 2. Additionally, Phase 1 winners will each receive a $75,000 voucher to work with DOE national laboratories and/or “Connectors” from the American-Made Network that qualify as Voucher Service Providers.
Phase 2. Demonstration
In this phase, winning competitors from Phase 1 will finalize their teams, complete solution design documentation, evaluate the size of the potential market and the commercial viability of the solution, and demonstrate functional prototype solutions. Pilot demonstrations should show that the technology is reliable and capable of broad application, and that it makes a substantial difference in the economic viability of electrifying the homes in question. Up to three prizes will be awarded under Phase 2, with a top prize of $1 million. The remaining prize pool will be shared equally between the other Phase 2 winners.
Eligibility Criteria
The competition is open to individuals; private entities (for-profits and nonprofits); nonfederal government entities such as states, counties, tribes, and municipalities; and academic institutions, subject to the following requirements:
- An individual prize competitor (who is not competing as a member of a group) must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.
- A group of individuals competing as one team may win, provided that the online account holder of the submission is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. Individuals competing as part of a team may participate if they are legally authorized to work in the United States.
- Private entities must be incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States.
- Academic institutions must be based in the United States.
- DOE employees, employees of sponsoring organizations, members of their immediate families (i.e., spouses, children, siblings, or parents), and persons living in the same household as such persons, whether or not related, are not eligible to participate in the prize.
- Individuals who worked at DOE (federal employees or support service contractors) within six months prior to the submission deadline of any contest are not eligible to participate in any prize contests in this program.
- Federal entities and federal employees are not eligible to participate in any portion of the prize.
- DOE national laboratory employees cannot compete in the prize.
- Entities and individuals publicly banned from doing business with the U.S. government, such as entities and individuals debarred, suspended, or otherwise excluded from or ineligible to participate in federal programs, are not eligible to compete in the prize.
- Entities identified in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Binding Operational Directives (BOD) as publicly banned from doing business with the U.S. government are not eligible to compete.
- Entities and individuals identified as restricted parties on one or more screening lists of the Departments of Commerce, State, or the Treasury are not eligible to compete.
- This prize is expected to positively impact U.S. economic competitiveness. Participation in a foreign government talent recruitment program could conflict with this objective by resulting in unauthorized transfer of scientific and technical information to foreign government entities. Therefore, individuals participating in foreign government talent recruitment programs of foreign countries of risk are not eligible to compete. Further, teams that include individuals participating in foreign government talent recruitment programs of foreign countries of risk are not eligible to compete.
For more information, visit EAS-E Prize.
