Finalists in DOE’s 1st Ever Clean Energy Business Plan Competition to be Announced

April 30th, 2012 by Zachary Shahan

The Department of Energy (DOE) this year launched its first-ever business plan competition for clean energy. The first such competition, First Look West (FLoW), has been coordinated with Caltech and is looking to spotlight the best young innovators in the country. Top innovators have a chance to win $100,000, $60,000, or $40,000 as well as “mentoring programs, legal start-up packages, and the opportunity to pitch to investors who can help student entrepreneurs transform innovative ideas into commercial reality.”

The competition’s 30 or so finalists (out of 83 teams from 34 universities) will be announced today and tomorrow at Caltech. These finalists will all be “automatically accepted into the Green Technology Entrepreneurship Academy (GTEA), offered by the Child Family Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, at UC Davis, June 25 – 27, 2012.”

The top 3 FLoW finalists will be semifinalists in the 2012 Cleantech Open competition.

“The FLoW competition is one of six awarded regionally as part of a three-year, $2 million DOE program,” the clean energy competition’s website states. “The winning teams from six regions will compete at a competition held at the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. in June 2012.”

I’m curious to see the proposals/ideas of the 30 or so finalists. Keep an eye on the FLoW page to check them out yourself.

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Tags: Caltech, caltech clean energy, clean energy business, clean energy business competition, clean energy startup competition, clean energy startups, cleantech competitions, Cleantech Open, Department Of Energy, DOE, First Look West, flow, quickies

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.