Solar Prize Round 8 semifinalists & power up contest winners

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) announced the 20 teams selected to advance to the semifinal stage of the multi-million dollar American-Made Solar Prize Round 8. The semifinalists will each receive $50,000 in cash and compete in the next round of the competition. Four of the semifinalists will receive a $25,000 bonus cash prize for winning the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Contest, which encourages solutions that enable underserved communities to overcome barriers to solar deployment.

DOE also announced seven teams selected for the Power Up Contest, a program designed to support new and diverse entrants to the solar energy industry. Each team will receive $3,000 and the opportunity to participate in the Power Up program, which offers four months of tailored mentorship and business support. Power Up teams who complete and meet the requirements of the Power Up program receive an additional $7,000 each and the opportunity to participate in the Power Up Pitch Competition, where one team will win an additional $4,000 and two passes to attend the 2025 RE+ conference.

The Solar Prize Round 8 semifinalists are:

Photovoltaics (PV)

• Full Charge Solar (Austin, TX)

• Martin Solar (Mascoutah, IL)

• Plug & Play Solar Wing (Atlanta, GA)

Systems Integration

• Expand Power Technologies, Inc. (San Francisco, CA)

• Flip Energy (San Francisco, CA)

• NetMeterGO.com (Las Vegas, NV)

• WattShift, Inc. (Chicago, IL)

Dual-Use PV

• Fundusol, LLC (Stanford, CA)

• Icarus (San Diego County, CA)

• Serida, Inc. (Ithaca, NY)

• Watts on Water (San Diego, CA)

Finance and Business Models

• Eighth Generation Consulting (Osage County, OK) – JEDI Contest Winner

• Greengrid, Inc. (Laconia, NH)

• Rayva (Gilbert, AZ) – JEDI Contest Winner

• Team CBA (Atlanta, GA) – JEDI Contest Winner

Deployment and Workforce

• Cosmic Robotics (San Francisco, CA)

• IWNL Energy (Orlando, FL) – JEDI Contest Winner

• PowerTechs (Austin, TX)

• Samtracs (San Antonio, TX)

• Solar Tech Collective (Tucson, AZ)

The Power Up Contest winners are:

• BloomBox Design Labs (Menlo Park, CA)

• Insitu Energy (San Francisco, CA)

• Okovate Sustainable Energy (Oxon Hill, MD)

• Sprightful (Miami, FL)

• Sundial (Spanish Fork, UT)

• Team Little Bob (Newark, DE)

• Venki Energy (Silver Spring, MD)

In the coming months, semifinalist teams will work to refine their concepts and prepare their pitches and demonstrations for the Set! Contest Interview Day in April 2025.