The competition engages students across disciplines—engineering, finance, urban planning, sustainability, communications, and more—to reimagine how energy is generated, managed, and used in a district. For the Class of 2023–2024, students will have access to an enhanced training platform to support innovation and learning. Student teams will also have two options for their district use cases: (1) assignment to a district use case defined by competition organizers, or (2) a bring-your-own-district division in which students may self-select their district use case, collecting and using the district’s available data on their own, with data synthesis support from competition organizers. All student teams choosing to bring their own district will compete in a division against other teams bringing their own districts. Additionally, the Solar District Cup Class of 2023–2024 will open a division for one-semester or two-quarter participation in the winter/spring.

Through the Solar Ambassador Prize, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will award a total of $3.5 million to up to 20 community organizations to help accelerate the installation of residential solar and battery storage systems on an estimated 30,000 – 40,000 homes across Puerto Rico. Solar Ambassadors will initially receive $15,000 in seed funding and will be eligible for compensation based on the number of households enrolled for residential solar and battery storage home inspections. Community-based organizations, nonprofits, and for-profit entities with an existing presence in Puerto Rico are eligible to apply to become Solar Ambassadors.

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. 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 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.

In Stage 1 the judges will choose up to fifteen Stage 1 Finalists to advance to Stage 2.  During Stage 2, we will hold a live demonstration of your solution and a second judging process.

The competition is open to all early-stage startups (Series A or earlier) that are focusing on Carbon Removal and Carbon Capture, Utilization & Storage anywhere in the world.

An expert team will review the applications and select five finalists, who will pitch before a live, online audience and judges at the SOSV Climate Tech Summit on September 26. The judges will announce the winner the next day during the summit.

The goal of the prize is to develop robust, domestic recycling options for fiber-reinforced composites and rare earth elements can lessen the United States’ need to extract and process raw materials, which can, in turn, reduce damage to the environment. Additionally, recycling rare earth elements would safeguard domestic manufacturing by improving resilience to price volatility and supply chain disruption.

During the first phase, Initiate!, competitors will prepare a submission package that highlights a concept for wind material recycling focused on economic and environmental sustainability. Up to 20 winners will be selected to receive $75,000 in cash each and an invitation to compete in the second phase of the competition.

CPO is seeking applications for two individual competitions in FY24. These 2 competitions are to expand creation and implementation of actionable, place-based climate information for community heat resilience.

Competitions 1 (NIHHIS Center of Excellence – Center for Community Climate & Health Observations, Monitoring & Evaluation) and 2 (NIHHIS Center of Excellence – Center for Climate and Health Assessments, Policy, and Practice) will support the new NIHHIS Centers of Excellence. The first center will provide technical and other assistance in developing community science observations to inform equitable heat resilience action while the second center will focus on technical and other assistance in planning, taking action on, and evaluating equitable heat resilience informed by prior observations and monitoring.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, is seeking proposals from the small businesses to develop novel environmental technologies in the following topics areas: clean and safe water, air quality and climate, land, homeland security, circular economy/sustainable materials, and safer chemicals.

The American-Made Solar Data Bounty Prize is designed to incentivize photovoltaic (PV) system owners to share information-rich datasets from their assets. With this data, the industry and research communities can continue to develop, validate, and fine-tune modeling tools for solar applications. This prize offers more than $1.4 million in cash prizes to competitors throughout two stages. The prize is comprised of two stages, and each stage has two tracks:

• Track A for small-to-medium systems (100-5,000 kW_DC)
• Track B for larger systems (> 5,000 kW _DC)

The Global Climate Innovator Challenge is a global program which brings together changemakers, climate entrepreneurs, sustainability technologists, and decision makers in the climate world to help accelerate the next wave of innovative solutions to achieve our 1.5ºC climate goal. We are looking for innovative solutions or ideas (including but not limited to technology, product, business model, or approach) that can accelerate progress towards 1.5°C climate goal. Professional Innovators can participate in the Challenge as an incorporated entity. You need to submit a summary of your Solution, with an identified stage before the deadline. Youth Innovators (<24yo) can participate in the Challenge as a team of 2-4 members.

Top 3 finalists will be invited to attend the black-tie Ambassador Gala;  receive continued support to fast-track their growth in the following 12 months, including mentorship, feedback, training, and resources from the GCIC network; and be invited to showcase the progress of their growth in the next year at the 2024 Global Climate Innovation Summit.

The Dubai International Award for Best Practices was established in 1995 to recognize initiatives which have resulted in a positive impact on improving the living environment. Since 1996, over 110 winners from different countries have been awarded cash prizes and trophies for their efforts to improve the living environment.

The award recognizes the world’s best practices that demonstrate valuable contributions to sustainable urban development, as a result of effective partnerships between public, private, and civic sectors in these areas:

1. Urban Regeneration and Public Spaces
2. Construction of Sustainable, Innovative and Smart Buildings
3. Sustaining Urban Food Systems
4. Addressing Climate Change and Reducing Pollution
5. Urban Infrastructure Planning and Management

Pilot -2 – Profit is a prestigious event that brings together the brightest minds and most innovative organizations in the Climate Tech industry. It serves as a platform for showcasing groundbreaking ideas, revolutionary solutions, and disruptive innovations that have the potential to shape the future of the industry. You’ll receive the opportunity to pilot your technology, receive training on customer engagement, get a chance to pitch to cleantech Venture Capitalists, bid on jobs through a reverse pitch contest, network with over 50 African American cleantech founders, and attend GPV’s Annual Convention – The ACRRE Initiative.