A $5 million prize for the American-Made Solar Prize Round 5, which is a competition designed to accelerate the commercialization of products needed for widespread, equitable solar energy deployment and domestic manufacturing, has been announced by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The agency also unveiled a new tool that connects innovators with support from DOE’s national labs, business incubators and other entrepreneurial resources in the American-Made Network to advance their technologies.

The new tool uses artificial intelligence to expand and develop the American-Made Network’s capabilities, helping fast-track development cycles. This tool will lower barriers to market entry for entrepreneurs by matching innovators to the exact resources they need.

The American-Made Solar Prize will have two tracks — one for hardware innovations and one for software Source: DOEinnovations. The software track will have a particular focus on enabling underserved communities to overcome systemic barriers to solar energy. To further incentivize this focus, competitors can win $300,000 in additional funds through a Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Contest. The two tracks of the competition will focus on hardware and software components separately, with the goal of enabling more entrepreneurs to compete in the solar space.

The hardware track builds on the previous four rounds of the Solar Prize by soliciting ideas for hardware products that can be manufactured in the U.S. This part of the program will support as many as 20 new teams, who will compete for up to $3 million in prizes as they advance their technologies with the support of the American-Made Network.

In the software track, DOE seeks software concepts that will help address the non-hardware costs of solar, like customer acquisition, financing and grid integration. Competitors can receive up to $2 million in prizes, using advances in communications and information technologies to rethink how to solve solar deployment challenges.

Apply by October 5, 2021 to compete in the Solar Prize, or register for an informational webinar on July 13 at 3 p.m. ET.