The second round of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) American-Made Solar Prize, a $3 million competition designed to revitalize U.S. solar manufacturing, is underway and seeking new participants to develop solutions capable of advancing solar technologies across the country.

Administered for DOE by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Solar Prize program supports entrepreneurs as they develop transformative technology ideas into concepts and then into early-stage prototypes ready for industry testing.

To compete in Solar Prize Round 2, entrepreneurs and teams make progress on a condensed timeline and seek private-sector partnerships and investments, priming their solutions for market success. Through the American-Made Network, competitors have access to a diverse and powerful network of experts and resources to help them develop their ideas, including support from national laboratories, energy incubators, investors, facilities, and other valuable industry partners.

Participants in Round 2 can be individuals, representatives of companies, university students or professors, small business owners, or researchers at national laboratories.

Illustration Photo: Curved Solar Panels (credits: MPCA Photos / Flickr Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0))