The Solar Desalination Prize is a four-phase prize competition that will advance thermal desalination technologies to expand the utilization of non-traditional water sources, ensure water security, and improve the resilience of U.S. infrastructure.
Removing salt from water takes a lot of energy! Many of the largest untapped water resources in the US and around the world cannot be cost-effectively used because of high concentrations of dissolved salts.
Water treatment processes, like reverse osmosis, are efficient when salt concentrations are low, but can’t treat high-salt waters like those that are produced from oil and gas wells, concentrated brines, and some industrial and agricultural wastewaters.
Novel thermal desalination technologies can purify water with very high salt content without dramatically increasing the amount of energy required. By using solar thermal as the energy source, desalination technologies could be used in a variety of important environments, especially in arid areas with high sun exposure, where water purification is especially important.
The Prize Structure
The Solar Desalination Prize has a rapid iteration prize structure designed to help entrepreneurs use innovative research to come up with ideas, then design and test concepts, with the end goal of having shovel-ready technology primed for industry adoption.
Millions of dollars in prizes will be awarded over the competition, increasing in value in each phase, culminating in a $1 million grand prize at the end of the competition for successful testing and demonstration of promising solar desalination prototypes.
Who can participate?
In April of 2020, the Solar Energy Technologies Office at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) launched the Solar Desalination Prize competition to help achieve the goals of the Water Security Grand Challenge.
Entrepreneurs, technologists, hardware developers, engineers, solar experts, and investors are all encouraged to join the challenge, be part of the American-Made Network and create ground-breaking solutions that will accelerate solar desalination technologies.
Please review the official rules for the application process and instructions for competing.
Be sure to read the new rules, as Round 2 is focused on new concepts for the collection and storage of solar-thermal energy, enabling desalination processes to run around the clock, and which can be widely used to provide heat for a variety of industrial processes.
Congratulations to the eight teams selected as semifinalists in the Teaming Contest of the Solar Desalination Prize Round 1. The competitors have been hard at work for the past year developing their ideas, forming teams, and looking forward to the design phase. Congratulations to the following teams:
Connecticut Center for Applied Separations Technology
Katz Water Technologies
The HIT Team
The semifinalists will receive $250,000 in cash and $100,000 in support vouchers and advance to the Design Contest of the competition, where they will complete a detailed, ready-to-build design of their solar-thermal desalination facility prototype for a chance to win $750,000 in cash and $100,000 in vouchers.
In case you missed it, the Department of Energy launched Round 2 of the Solar Desalination Prize on April 12. Learn more about Round 2.
Interested in learning more about the Solar Desalination Prize quarterfinalist teams? Join us for a networking event next Tuesday 12/8 for an opportunity to virtually connect with team members representing each of the quarterfinalists. Register here: https://bit.ly/2JCkDmt