The American-Made Solar Prize Round 8 is a multimillion-dollar prize program designed to spur innovations in U.S. solar hardware and software technologies and address challenges to rapid, equitable solar energy deployment. Anyone based in the United States with a potentially marketable solar technology solution are eligible to compete and can sign up on the HeroX prize platform. Potential applicants include students, professors, small business owners, and researchers.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) opened applications on June 14, 2024. On January 15, 2025, DOE selected 20 teams to receive $50,000 each and advance to the next stage of the competition. Four teams were also selected to win the Ready! JEDI Contest and receive an additional $25,000. DOE also awarded $3,000 prizes to each of the seven teams selected for the Power Up Contest, a program designed to support new and diverse entrants to the solar energy industry.
This challenge requires competitors to make progress quickly, form private-sector partnerships, and engage customers to bring their ideas to life. Competitors will have access to the American-Made Network to find partners and testing facilities to accelerate their progress.
DOE is interested in solar hardware and software technologies. Hardware innovations should be able to be manufactured in the United States. Software innovations should help address the non-hardware costs of solar, like customer acquisition, financing, and grid integration.
Competitors will participate in three escalating challenges—the Ready!, Set!, and Go! Contests—as they develop their concepts from ideas to products. Individually, each competitor can win up to $700,000 in cash and $150,000 in technical support vouchers over the course of the three contests.
Competitors have the opportunity in each contest to also compete in the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Contest. Should they opt in, at each stage, the competitors will describe how their solutions address solar market barriers faced by underserved communities and work to substantially advance their approach toward JEDI goals.
For those who have a great idea but need a boost to take their innovation to the next level, the Solar Prize Round 8 offers the Power Up Contest. This contest is designed to support and advance new and diverse teams that have compelling applications but aren’t selected to advance to the Set! Contest. Teams were selected for the Power Up Contest based on their Ready! Contest submission packet. These teams each receive $3,000 and the opportunity to participate in the Power Up program, which offers four months of tailored mentorship and business support. Power Up teams who complete and meet the requirements of the Power Up program receive an additional $7,000 each and the opportunity to participate in the Power Up Pitch Competition, where one team will win an additional $4,000 and two passes to attend the 2025 RE+ conference.
Stages of Competition
- Ready! Contest: 20 winners, $50,000 each. Each competitor will pitch an innovative solution that addresses a critical need in the solar industry and identify market demand for it.
- Set! Contest: 10 winners, $100,000 in cash prizes and $75,000 in vouchers each. Each team advancing to the Set! Contest will design a hardware proof of concept or a minimum viable software product.
- Go! Contest: Two winners, $500,000 in cash prizes and $75,000 in vouchers each. Selected competitors will develop early-stage hardware prototypes for industry testing or customer-validated software products.
- JEDI Contest (Optional): $200,000 in total cash prizes distributed to up to 10 Ready! finalists, up to five Set! semifinalists, and up to 2 Go! Competitors.
- Power Up Contest: $100,000 in total cash prizes distributed to up to 10 new and diverse teams with promising ideas who were not selected as Ready! Contest winners.
Competitors who opt into the JEDI Contest will describe how their solutions address solar market barriers faced by underserved communities and work to substantially advance their approach toward JEDI goals as they progress through the Ready!, Set!, and Go! Contests.
Semifinalists
Photovoltaics (PV)
Full Charge Solar (Austin, TX) – This team is developing a fully collapsible, emission-free, cart-based solar array with a battery and inverter that requires little to no maintenance. This system provides electricity throughout the day while charging a battery to provide electricity at night and can serve emergency situations when power is not available.
Martin Solar (Mascoutah, IL) – This team is developing a new mounting system for residential solar that does not require drilling into homeowners’ roofs. This leak-proof mount will protect rooftops from damage and increase consumer confidence in rooftop solar.
Plug & Play Solar Wing (Atlanta, GA) – This team is developing a quick-deploy, expandable solar PV array suitable for applications such as carports and disaster relief. This expandable design allows the Solar Wing to eliminate more than 95% of onsite installation activities, making it easy to relocate to new sites in the future.
Systems Integration
Expand Power Technologies, Inc. (San Francisco, CA) – This team is developing a novel inverter-based transformer that is smaller, safer, and smarter than traditional designs. This compact solution will expand access to solar in space-limited areas, such as urban environments, and reduce lead times by leveraging U.S.-based manufacturing capabilities.
Flip Energy (San Francisco, CA) – This team is developing a turnkey platform to allow homeowners with solar and storage to more easily participate in virtual power plants, which can allow them to generate revenue from their solar + storage systems. This solution will help make residential solar and storage more affordable and accessible for homeowners while also supporting grid reliability.
NetMeterGO.com (Las Vegas, NV) – This team is developing a platform that automates affordable net meter interconnection for small- and medium-sized utilities. This solution will equitably promote solar power through streamlined and automated interconnection queue management.
WattShift, Inc. (Chicago, IL) – This team is developing a software platform for managing home energy devices, aligning demand with renewable energy availability. This management system dynamically optimizes energy use while reducing consumer costs and enabling more renewables on the grid.
Dual-Use PV
Fundusol, LLC (Stanford, CA) – This team is developing a modeling software to design and optimize agrivoltaics systems by modeling multiple factors to predict the performance of the agrivoltaic system on each farm's crop and/or livestock. This solution will help accelerate the deployment of solar in agricultural environments.
Icarus (San Diego County, CA) – This team is developing a solution that integrates PV and solar thermal technologies by capturing and converting waste heat to create a hybrid PV and thermal cogeneration system. This solution will improve the power performance of commercial PV arrays and generate hot water that can be stored for on-demand energy needs.
Serida, Inc. (Ithaca, NY) – This team is developing an agrivoltaics deployment software to enable solar developers to design agrivoltaic systems through advanced microclimate modeling and crop algorithms. This solution will help empower rural communities to go solar by maximizing the community benefits of agrivoltaics.
Watts on Water (San Diego, CA) – This team is developing an automated, geographic information system-based solar siting and design software tailored to floating photovoltaics (FPV) systems. Through FPV-specific design parameters and co-benefits analysis, this solution will support the deployment of FPV through streamlining tools such as siting and design and customer acquisition.
Finance and Business Models
Eighth Generation Consulting (Osage County, OK) – This team is developing a solar asset management software using artificial intelligence, computer vision, geographic information systems, and permitting data to streamline how solar is permitted, serviced, and decommissioned. Through cradle-to-grave tracking, this solution will enable accurate and cost-effective management and decommissing of solar assets. JEDI Winner
Greengrid, Inc. (Laconia, NH) – This team is developing a platform that finances solar rooftop projects in disadvantaged communities by leveraging corporate renewable energy certificate (REC) commitments. By bundling small-scale solar projects into large, high-impact REC portfolios, this solution reduces financial barriers to rooftop solar for underserved communities.
Rayva (Gilbert, AZ) – This team is partnering with roofers and builders to install their building-integrated solar modules during the construction of new homes or roof replacements. This building-integrated solar module, combined with a streamlined business-to-business sales model, will reduce costs and expand the availability of solar to homeowners, including those in underserved communities. JEDI Winner
Team CBA (Atlanta, GA) – This team is developing a tool to help communities and renewable energy project sponsors develop community benefit agreements. The tool assists with facilitating discovery and research, establishing key impact initiatives and success indicators, drafting and monitoring agreements, and tracking and reporting. JEDI Winner
Deployment and Workforce
Cosmic Robotics (San Francisco, CA) – This team is developing robots to pick up and place solar modules on single-axis solar trackers, automating a dangerous and laborious task in the installation process. Through this innovation, a network of robots could work alongside human crews to accelerate the deployment of utility-scale solar.
IWNL Energy (Orlando, FL) – This team is developing a multilingual, comprehensive, user-centered software platform called the Solar Energy Career Navigator. This platform aims to reduce barriers to entry and bridge the gap between potential workers and employers, guiding them toward fulfilling careers in the solar energy sector. JEDI Winner
PowerTechs (Austin, TX) – This team is developing a reskilling and skills assessment platform for the renewable energy workforce that combines artificial intelligence and extended reality. This solution will help address the solar workforce shortage and accelerate deployment of solar energy.
Samtracs (San Antonio, TX) – This team is automating solar farm construction through on-site, mobile construction equipment combined with redesigned single-axis tracker components. This new assembly process and tracker design will reduce labor requirements for solar farm construction and decrease construction time.
Solar Tech Collective (Tucson, AZ) – This team is developing a mobile-based training app, SolTrain, for solar installation field technicians. The app will provide microlessons focused on essential field skills and will validate technician competency to lower operational costs for solar asset owners.
Power Up Contest Winners
BloomBox Design Labs (Menlo Park, CA) – This team is developing a modular and retractable solar roof system that is securely mounted on shipping containers to bring solar energy to off-grid communities.
Insitu Energy (San Francisco, CA) – This team is developing a platform that helps communities assess solar potential on brownfield sites—previously occupied properties that may be difficult to reuse due to the potential presence of contaminants—and recommends quality projects to developers.
Okovate Sustainable Energy (Oxon Hill, MD) – This team is developing an agrivoltaic leasing webtool to assess solar and agriculture income for farmers, using simple inputs about their land to empower decisionmaking.
Sprightful (Miami, FL) – This team is developing a community-driven platform to educate interested homeowners on solar PV installation best practices and communicate with existing system owners.
Sundial (Spanish Fork, UT) – This team is developing universal solar trackers for both flat and slanted roofs, allowing panels to track the sun and generate 20-30% more energy.
Team Little Bob (Newark, DE) – This team is developing a virtual marketplace for community solar aimed at low-to-moderate income communities that allows current subscribers to invest in future projects.
Venki Energy (Silver Spring, MD) – This team is developing a removable rooftop array that can reduce the soft costs of solar installation and enable subscription solar business models.
Additional Resources
- Watch a recording of the informational webinar and download the slide deck (PDF).
- Follow the American-Made Solar Prize Round 8.
- Learn more about the American-Made Solar Prize.
- Join the American-Made Network to support competitors as they bring new technologies to market.
- Support the American-Made Solar Prize by becoming a partner or expert reviewer.
- Learn about previous rounds of the American-Made Solar Prize.
- For questions about the Solar Prize, email [email protected].
The American-Made Solar Prize is a part of the American-Made Challenges and is administered by DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.