American-Made Community Power Accelerator Prize
Funds new, emerging, and expanding U.S. solar developers growing operations to support multiple community solar projects through a DOE prize competition.
The American-Made Community Power Accelerator Prize is a prize competition administered by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO), under the American-Made Challenges program. The total prize pool is $10 million, distributed across competition phases to solar developers and co-developers who advance through the competition stages.
The prize is designed to help new, emerging, and expanding solar developers learn, participate, and grow their operations to support multiple successful community solar projects. Rather than a direct grant award, this is a staged prize competition where participants earn cash prizes by completing defined milestones and demonstrating progress in developing community solar projects.
Eligibility is broad: for-profit companies, nonprofits, universities, and individuals operating in the United States may apply. Specific eligibility details — including team size requirements, geographic restrictions, and documentation requirements — are not detailed in the official source page. Applicants should check the official competition guidelines on the HeroX platform or the DOE SETO website for full eligibility rules.
Application procedures, submission deadlines, and specific competition phase requirements are managed through the American-Made Network and the HeroX competition platform. The source page does not publish specific current deadlines. Participants should monitor the DOE SETO Solar Energy Prizes page and the HeroX platform for active submission windows and phase announcements.
Practical caveats: this is a prize competition, not a grant — no indirect costs or overhead recovery applies. Award amounts depend on competition phase placement and milestone completion. The $10 million figure represents the total prize pool across all phases and winners, not a per-applicant award cap. No cost-sharing or matching requirement is stated in the available source material.
Community solar development, equitable solar access, and co-development of community solar projects by new or expanding solar developers.
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