Prizes and Competitions

The Water Security Grand Challenge uses as coordinated suite of prizes and competitions to pursue the goals of the Challenge. Find the current and previous prizes and competitions below. 

The Waves to Water Prize is a 5-Stage, $3.3M contest to accelerate technology innovation in wave energy powered desalination systems. These technologies hold the potential to deliver clean water to communities for disaster relief purposes, and to remote communities throughout the globe. Over three years, the prize will provide innovators a pathway from initial concept, to technical design, to prototype, to field testing systems that provide clean, abundant drinking water using only waves as a power source. In the final stage of the prize, these systems will be tested in partnership with the Coastal Studies Institute at Jennette’s Pier.

The Waves to Water Prize supports Goal 1 of the Water Security Grand Challenge. Learn more about the Prize. 

Solar Desalination Prize is a four-stage, $9 million prize competition, providing an additional $1 million in support, designed to accelerate the development of low-cost desalination systems that use solar-thermal power to produce clean water from salt water. Competitors will receive cash prizes as they advance through each stage of the competition, culminating in a $1 million grand prize for the successful testing and demonstration of a promising solar-thermal desalination system prototype.

The Solar Desalination Prize supports Goal 1 of the Water Security Grand Challenge. Learn more about the Prize. 

Through this prize competition, DOE is seeking novel, systems-based solutions from multidisciplinary teams to implement resource recovery at small- to medium-sized water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs). By presenting cost-effective and innovative facility engineering solutions, WRRFs can progress toward the goal of doubling resource recovery and accelerate the transition from conventional wastewater treatment to a model of resource recovery from municipal wastewater across the United States.

The Water Resource Recovery Prize supports Goal 4 of the Water Security Grand Challenge. Learn more about the Prize.

Chevron Technology Ventures, a division of Chevron U.S.A. Inc. (CTV), and the Office of Fossil Energy announced an agreement to advance solutions to produced water issues. Under the Cooperation Agreement, the Office of Fossil Energy provided technical expertise to CTV on the Chevron Tech Challenge for Produced Water, which sought to develop cost-effective produced water management solutions applicable to U.S. oil and gas extraction. Winners of the challenge were announced in February 2019. 

The Chevron Tech Challenge for Produced Water supported Goal 2 of the Water Security Grand Challenge. Learn more about the Tech Challenge.