Energizing Rural Communities Prize

The Energizing Rural Communities Prize challenges individuals and organizations to develop partnership plans or innovative financing strategies to help rural or remote communities improve their energy systems and advance clean energy demonstration projects. 

The Energizing Rural Communities Prize has two tracks, both following a two-phase timeline: 

• The Partner track—with a $10 million cash prize pool—will support plans to connect rural or remote communities to government funding, technical assistance, or a network of partners that can help implement clean energy demonstration projects. 
  
• The Finance track—with a $5 million cash prize pool—will support plans to access capital or to develop community ownership models to help finance clean energy demonstration projects in rural or remote areas. 

This prize seeks to:

• Demonstrate innovative and replicable partnership and financial mechanisms that act as initial steps toward clean energy projects.
• Better prepare rural or remote communities to secure funding for clean energy projects, either through future Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas (ERA) funding opportunities or other public or private funding sources.
• Identify, understand, and further develop activities that prepare communities to complete clean energy projects.
• Build trust and strengthen the networks between and within rural and remote communities in support of energy improvements aligned with DOE’s Justice40 priorities.

More about the prize tracks can be found at https://americanmadechallenges.org/challenges/rural-energy/docs/Energizing-Rural-Communities-Prize-Rules.pdf#page=8.

Estimated Total Program Funding: