The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) has awarded $10,000 each to 20 teams for their innovative concepts that use marine energy to power ocean-based activities. The teams are the winners of the first phase of the Powering the Blue Economy: Power at Sea Prize.
The Power at Sea Prize aims to attract new, creative minds to the field of marine energy to maximize its potential for powering the blue economy. Through two prize phases—CONCEPT and DEVELOP—WPTO seeks to identify innovative marine energy concepts that could feasibly provide power for blue economy applications such as ocean-observing devices, aquaculture installations, and storm tracking.
“There is so much potential for marine energy technologies to power systems for offshore work such as ocean exploration and weather monitoring,” said WPTO Director Matthew Grosso. “The CONCEPT Phase winners delivered the out-of-the-box ideas we were looking for as we work to harness that potential, and I look forward to seeing their progress in the prize’s next phase.”
The 20 winning teams proposed a diverse set of ideas, including marine-powered aquaculture, recharging stations for autonomous underwater vehicles, and artificial reefs with embedded wave energy converters.
The winning teams are:
- AquaSync (Ann Arbor, Michigan)
- BlueBio&Beyond (Hoboken, New Jersey)
- Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering (San Luis Obispo, California)
- Changzheng Huang (Irvine, California)
- E-Wave Technologies (Hoboken, New Jersey)
- IMTAqua (Ithaca, New York)
- OceaniCal (Berkeley, California)
- ODU Ocean Wave Energy (Norfolk, Virginia)
- OffshoreLink (Hoboken, New Jersey)
- Oscilla Power Inc. (Seattle, Washington)
- Pittsburgh Coastal Energy (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
- Poseidon’s Kite (Keswick, Virginia)
- SEAquestration Team (Ithaca, New York)
- Seatrec, Inc. (Vista, California)
- Sperra (Boulder, Colorado)
- Team Michigan Tech (Houghton, Michigan)
- Team Streaming Energy (Wendell, North Carolina)
- Wave Water Works (Farmington Hills, Michigan)
- WaveRiders (Calverton, Maryland)
- Waverocker Energy (Montrose, California)
These teams will now compete in the DEVELOP Phase, which aims to better position competitors for continued technology development following the prize. As teams continue to refine their concepts, they will receive ongoing support from American-Made Power Connectors, as well as industry mentors that will host office hours, networking sessions, and targeted training as needed. The DEVELOP Phase is expected to close in summer 2025, at which time up to 20 winners will be awarded from a cash prize pool of up to $1.5 million.
This prize supports the goals of WPTO’s Powering the Blue Economy initiative.
This prize is funded by WPTO and is administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, with technical leadership provided by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Office of Aquaculture, the NOAA-led U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System, NOAA’s Ocean Acidification Program, and NOAA’s National Sea Grant College Program also provided technical support.
