The American-Made Community Power Accelerator Prize is a $10 million prize competition designed tofast-track the efforts of new, emerging, and expanding solar developers and co-developers to learn, participate, and grow their operations to support multiple successful community solar projects.
The goal of this prize is to grow a robust ecosystem of community solar project developers that incorporate meaningful benefits into projects across the United States.
Structured to Accelerate Community Solar Investments
This three-phase prize aims to increase the number of equitable community solar projects by providing funding and resources for developers and co-developers throughout the project pre-development process, including:
Tools and resources to connect developers with private sector project financing for community solar projects using a standardized process.
Training to understand the full cycle of community solar development, including site acquisition, community relations, customer acquisition, securing financing, costs, and the unique challenges and benefits of a community solar model.
Free consulting services to competitors on the steps necessary to get a community solar project financed.
Coaching on expanding developers’ solar customer markets to include low- and moderate-income populations, disadvantaged communities, and local workforce development, as well as increase resilience to power outages and household savings to make community solar projects attractive to the widest range of customers possible.
By the end of the prize, competitors will be ready to engage with the Community Power Accelerator online platform, which provides a place for competitors to shop their credit-ready projects around to verified project developers, investors, and philanthropic organizations.
Informational Webinar
On Feb. 1, 2023, prize administrators held an informational webinar on the Community Power Accelerator Prize.During the webinar, we gave participants an overview of the prize, submission requirements, scoring criteria, and winner selection process. Prize administrators also answered audience questions.
One of the key goals of the Community Power Accelerator Prize is to support and grow a robust ecosystem of community solar project developers that incorporate meaningful benefits into projects across the United States.These benefits provided by community solar subscriptions can build consumer trust and ensure that everyone can participate in the clean energy transition.
The Community Power Accelerator Prize provides funding and resources to empower developers to deploy community solar projects that provide at least two of the following five meaningful benefits to subscribers and their communities:
Low- to moderate-income (LMI) household access
Greater household savings
Resilience and grid benefits
Community ownership
Equitable workforce development
Powering Change Beyond the Prize
This prize is part of the larger Community Power Accelerator program, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Energy National Community Solar Partnership. It brings together investors, philanthropic organizations, developers, community-based organizations, and technical experts in one online ecosystem to accelerate the deployment of the funds needed to drive a more equitable clean energy transition.
The Community Power Accelerator online platform will create a pipeline of credit-ready community solar projects—particularly those that provide benefits to underserved communities—and connect them with mission-aligned investors and philanthropic organizations to get funding.
The prize supports this initiative by providing funding and resources to stand up or expand community solar project development practices and develop a pipeline of multiple projects for new community solar project developers.
Who Can Compete?
The Community Power Accelerator Prize is open to U.S. community solar developers, including new developers, co-developers (organizations who are partnering with a project developer), or developers who are expanding their community solar operations.
The prize encourages organizations who are new to community solar development to apply to this prize, including (but are not limited to):
Multifamily affordable housing providers
Community and economic development organizations
Intermediary organizations such as community development financial institutions
Community-based organizations that have real estate portfolios and/or are in construction
General contractors with roofing and/or electrical experience
Traditional solar project developers who are looking to expand into the community solar space
Socially and economically disadvantaged individual (SEDI) demographics-related business and women and minority-owned businesses.
Other large real estate holders that could be available for solar deployment
Guidelines
Challenge Guidelines
Please review the official rules for the complete application process and instructions for competing.
If you want to receive updates on the prize or have any questions, please subscribe by using the contact feature on the HeroX platform or message us directly at
The American-Made Community Power Accelerator Prize is a $10 million prize competition designed tofast-track the efforts of new, emerging, and expanding solar developers and co-developers to learn, participate, and grow their operations to support multiple successful community solar projects. The American-Made Community Power Accelerator Prize is directed and administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office. Learn more.
Another round of the $10 million Community Power Accelerator Prize has officially launched and is now open for applications. Round 3 of this three-phase prize is designed tofast-track the efforts of new, emerging, and expanding solar developers and codevelopers to grow multiple successful community-benefiting distributed solar projects.
Round 3 of the prize seeks organizations that have the desire and ambition to develop and finance a portfolio of two or more projects that, in aggregate, total at least 1 MW AC of distributed solar generation.To be eligible, no single portfolio project may exceed 5 MW AC. Distributed solar projects may include but are not limited to:
Community solar
Behind-the-meter virtual power plants (VPPs)
Distributed energy resource (DER) aggregations
Microgrids
Commercial and industrial (C&I) solar
Multifamily projects.
Can I apply to Round 3 if I’ve applied to other rounds of the prize in the past?
Organizations that have previously won only Round 1 Phase 1 or Round 2 Phase 1 of the Community Power Accelerator Prize are eligible to compete but must include a new portfolio of projects. Organizations that have previously won Round 1 Phase 2 or Round 2 Phase 2 are not eligible to compete in Round 3.
How can I learn more information about the prize?
Follow the prize on HeroX to stay up to date on the latest announcements, and don’t forget to register for one of the two upcoming Round 3 Informational Webinars.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) today announced seven additional Phase 2 winners of the Community Power Accelerator Prize. Each team received $200,000 based on their submissions and conveyed efforts throughout Phase 2 and will now compete for a $150,000 cash prize in Phase 3.
In Phase 2, teams completed an instructor-led Learning Lab course, worked alongside technical assistance coaches to refine their Phase 2 project profiles, and created impactful investor pitch decks. Now in Phase 3, competitors will begin to fully engage on the Community Power Accelerator platform to secure investment commitments from investors and philanthropic organizations.
Congratulations to the seven additional teams moving on to Phase 3:
Bonneville Environmental Foundation(Portland, OR)
Submission: Sunward: Building Community Energy Together
Green Energy Justice Cooperative, Inc(Chicago, IL)
Submission: Ready! Green Energy Justice Cooperative
North End Woodward Community Coalition(Detroit, MI)
Submission: Solar Neighbors-Making the Motor City a Solar City
Rare, Inc. (Boston, MA)
Submission: Boston SHINE: solar and workforce development
RETI Center(Brooklyn, NY)
Submission: RETI Center Local Power NYC
Solar United National(Mount Pleasant, SC)
Submission: Solar United National empowers communities
SunShare LLC(New Mexico)
Submission: New Mexico Expansion
Learn more about the 13 teams moving on to Phase 3 in the Teams tab, and find detailed information about their Phase 3 deliverables in the Official Rules. Phase 3 winners will be announced at the end of 2024.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office today announced the six winning teams moving on to Phase 3 of the Community Power Accelerator Prize. Each team received $200,000 based on their submissions and conveyed efforts throughout Phase 2 and will now compete for a $150,000 cash prize.
Competitors were granted a rolling submission deadline for Phase 2—submit the required materials by Aug. 29 for an opportunity to either advance to Phase 3 or receive direct feedback and re-submit by the second Phase 2 deadline. The remaining 19 teams in Phase 2 have until January 12, 2024, to submit their updated materials.
In Phase 2, teams completed an instructor-led Learning Lab course, worked alongside technical assistance coaches to refine their Phase 2 project profiles, and created impactful investor pitch decks. From the first round of Phase 2 submissions, the following teams will advance to the third and final phase:
548 Energy Solutions (Chicago, IL) Submission: Affordable Power for Chicago
ADL Ventures(Chicago, IL) Submission: Condo to the Farm (C2F)
Mana Pacific Inc.(Kihei, HI) Submission: Community Solar for Molokai, HI, and American Samoa
Oregon Clean Power Cooperative (Corvallis, OR) Submission: Out of the Ashes: Southern Oregon Community Solar
Orleans Parish School Board (New Orleans, LA) Submission: Solar Investment for a Sustainable School District
Sovereign Resiliency Partners, LLC (Masphee, MA) Submission: Community Solar for Native American Reservations
Read more about the six teams moving on to Phase 3.
Throughout the next phase, competitors will begin to fully engage on the Community Power Accelerator platform to secure investment commitments from investors and philanthropic organizations. For more information on the Community Power Accelerator Prize Phase 3, please review the Official Rules.
We can’t wait to see what these competitors do next!
Competitors will participate in three phases of competition—Ready!, Set!, and Grow!—with up to 25 winners selected in each round. Individually, each competitor can win up to $400,000 over the course of the prize.
Community solar is a form of solar energy generation that allows all community members to access the meaningful benefits of renewable energy, particularly those with low-to-moderate incomes, renters, and those for whom traditional rooftop solar is unavailable.
The prize is a critical component of the Community Power Accelerator, a network of developers, investors, philanthropists, and community-based organizations that works together to ensure equitable community solar projects are adequately financed and deployed.
These cash prizes will enable mission-aligned developers and other groups to expand their staff and operations, and to design and deploy multiple community solar projects that use replicable business models and prioritize equitable access. These projects and models will expand community solar and drive new capital to community solar across the country.
In addition to earning cash prizes, winners will participate in a learning lab, and obtain technical assistance to further scope out their project portfolios to get them ready for financing. Through this process, the teams will develop skills critical to deploying hundreds of megawatts of equitable community solar, which support NCSP’s goal of 20 gigawatts by 2025.
The deadline to apply for the Ready! contest is October 4, 2023.
Register for the next informational webinar on September 19 at 3 p.m. ET to hear more about the prize program.
The draft Phase 3 rules are now live and prize administrators are seeking feedback from this community. We encourage everyone to read the draft Phase 3 rulesand use this form to share comments through August 11, 2023.
Additional Draft Phase 3 templates are also available for review and feedback:
