On January 6th, the Clean Energy Trust announced the semifinalists for its inaugural student clean energy challenge. Semifinalists were chosen from more than 40 innovative clean energy business plans submitted from eight Midwestern states.
The 16 semifinalist teams represent five states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio) and 11 universities, with the most teams coming from Purdue University (four teams) and Northwestern University (three teams). Within the submissions, Clean Energy Trust reviewers saw a broad assortment of undergraduate and graduate students, male and female students, engineers and social science majors, as well as those who have gone to school to focus on entrepreneurship and those who recently learned of the business plan competition opportunity.
Many teams developed business plans around technologies straight from their university labs while some teams chose technologies from U.S. National Labs or other technology sources from across the country.
| Student Challenge finalists | University | Category |
| 1. Amplified Wind Solutions | Cleveland State University | Renewables |
| 2. ATS Motors | Purdue Universit | Next-gen transportation |
| 3. Bagpipe Technologies | Northwestern University | Energy-efficiency |
| 4. Convolutus Inc | Purdue University | Energy-efficiency |
| 5. Design Flux Technologies | University of Akron | Energy storage |
| 6. Effimax Solar | University of Illinois--Urbana | Renewables |
| 7. Electroluminescent Products | University of Missouri--Kansas City | Energy-efficiency |
| 8. Hydraulic Wind Power | Indiana University | Renewables |
| 9. NanoHarv | Case Western Reserve University | Renewables |
| 10. NuMat Technology | Northwestern University | Energy storage |
| 11. Power-by-Nano | Purdue University | Renewables |
| 12. ReGenerate Solutions | University of Michigan—Ann Arbor | Biomass |
| 13. Re:Wind | Purdue University | Renewables |
| 14. Root3 | University of Chicago | Energy-efficiency |
| 15. Saturnis | Washington University | Biomass |
| 16. SiNode | Northwestern University | Energy storage |
Three more Michigan-based teams will be joining the list of semifinalists in mid-February after they have successfully competed in the Michigan Clean Energy Venture Challenge.
You can learn more about Clean Energy Trust’s Clean Energy Student Challenge and semifinalists at the CET website or through the Department of Energy’s National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition Blog.