Since 2018, the American-Made Solar Prize has been energizing U.S. innovations and entrepreneurs. Hear from past winners to learn how the Prize has contributed to their success and find out what they’ve been able to accomplish since their victories.
Solar Energy Technologies Office
June 12, 2023
minute read time
The sun sets on a photovoltaics array in the mountains at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado. Photo by Werner Slocum, NREL
The American-Made Solar Prize (Solar Prize) is a multi-million-dollar competition designed to energize U.S. solar innovation by providing support to entrepreneurs as they develop transformative technology from concepts into prototypes. Since launching in 2018, the Solar Prize has awarded $19.6 million in cash prizes and other support to 140 teams, including 13 grand prize winners, over the course of six rounds.
In addition, competitors can leverage the growing American-Made Network to gain momentum during the competition and attract expert support to continue developing their innovation.
Who Are the Winners and Where Are They Now?
American-Made Solar Prize Round 1
Phase3 Photovoltaics (PV) began with a mission to bring rooftop solar energy to manufactured houses. The founders saw a gap in the solar market and an opportunity to expand access to solar energy and its benefits among lower income brackets. While competing in the Solar Prize, Phase3 PV conducted testing to see how the pre-installed solar panels fared during transport. Working with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, they developed a model neighborhood to investigate how these solar arrays can be leveraged by utilities to improve grid resilience. The Solar Prize was pivotal to Phase3 PV’s success, reducing the amount of venture funding needed to get the business off the ground.
Since winning the Solar Prize, Phase3 PV has been busy. The company was awarded more than $1.2 million in the 2019 Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) funding program. They went on to work with a builder in Northern California and now have a 340-kilowatt multi-stage project with battery storage constructed. In addition to expanding its industry footprint with new customers, Phase3 PV is also working with Oak Ridge National Laboratory on a white paper and hopes to use it to help update the Housing and Urban Development code to include an index of solar best practices.
American-Made Solar Prize Round 2
Resilient Power Systems developed the Resilient Power Router, a hybrid inverter that enables interconnection between solar, storage, and other energy resources. It also integrates transformers and inverters into a single unit, helping to solve the national transformer supply shortage while reducing size and installation times by 90%. The Solar Prize allowed the company to work with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Savannah River National Laboratory on analysis and validation of their product, leading to a tenfold increase in orders and a doubling of staff.
Since winning the Solar Prize, Resilient Power Systems has received more than $5 million from top tier investors like Amazon, sold more than $15 million in transformers, and currently has six U.S. patents and another six pending.
American-Made Solar Prize Round 3
Wattch, Inc. developed a solar monitoring platform to help commercial PV plants increase operational efficiency. The platform has a universal dashboard that allows PV fleet owners and operators observe the performance of their systems, improves remote and automated diagnostics, and effectively models a plant’s lifetime energy yield. The Solar Prize helped Wattch catalyze initial development of the product, hire its first team members, and establish legitimacy in the industry, elevating the company’s visibility to prospects, investors, and future hires.
Since winning the Solar Prize, Wattch has worked to build out the functionality of its platform and expand the number of sites the platform can monitor. Wattch also raised $3 million from prominent industry executives and venture capital funds and hired five additional employees to further its expansion. The founders were featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Energy list in 2024. On average, an existing project that switches to Wattch will see a 21% performance improvement in the first three months. The platform is now being used to monitor and control nearly 1,000 sites in 14 states and 3 countries.
American-Made Solar Prize Round 4
AeroShield Materials developed silica aerogels that serve as transparent insulators capable of withstanding extremely high temperatures. When used in the generation of solar-thermal energy, this material improves the efficiency of flat plate thermal receivers by more than 30%. This enables the aerogels to aid in the generation of industrial process heat. AeroShield teamed up with Etajoule to design a flat-plate solar collector and industrial process heat system that could take advantage of the transparent aerogel material. The team worked with Sandia National Laboratories to validate the product’s ability to enable high temperature thermal energy without compromising efficiency.
The Solar Prize allowed AeroShield to scale up manufacturing, and since winning, AeroShield has been able to create new partnerships with solar collector manufacturers, system installers and operators, and end users. The company raised $4 million of seed funding and continues to work with Sandia to improve long-term durability of the silica aerogels.
American-Made Solar Prize Round 5
In round five, Midday Tech was recognized for developing a platform that connects consumers who purchase voluntary carbon offsets with rooftop solar projects in high-impact communities. Individuals interested in protecting the environment can sign up to help fund the installation of rooftop solar panels. The Solar Prize funded the concept and technology development, which led to the product’s launch and validation.
Midday Tech has gone on to conduct independent user research and data modeling of CO2 reduction from solar panel installations. They also launched a website for members to “choose a spot” on a virtual panel and see the stories from the systems they helped put up together.