The Powering the Blue Economy™: Ocean Observing Prize challenges innovators to integrate marine renewable energy with ocean observation platforms, ultimately revolutionizing the ability to collect the data needed to understand, map, and monitor the ocean. This joint prize between the Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and NOAA’s Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS®) Office seeks to develop new technologies that can help fill the data gaps making it difficult to realize the full potential of the Blue Economy. The Ocean Observing Prize includes a series of competitions, with millions of dollars in awards, to encourage rapid innovation in the fields of marine energy and ocean observations.
The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are supporting DOE and NOAA in the development and administration of the prize. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has selected the Blue Power Connectors team, led by Braid Theory with Ocean Exchange and DNV, to support the Ocean Observing Prize.
The American-Made Challenges Prize platform, administered by NREL, brings together a world-class research base with an unparalleled entrepreneurial support system—consisting of pioneering university teams, dozens of energy incubators, and 16 National Laboratories—to create a sweeping portfolio of innovations primed for private investment and commercial scale-up.
Blue Power Connectors
Challenge Partners
