Team Michigan Tech is a winner of the Department of Energy’s Power at Sea Prize DEVELOP Phase, carrying a $75,000 cash award.
The DEVELOP Phase is the second stage of the Power at Sea Prize, open to the 20 teams that won the CONCEPT Phase in November 2024. The DEVELOP phase participants competed for a prize pool of up to $1,500,000. In addition to cash prizes, competitors will receive multiple types of support throughout the competition, including webinars, networking sessions, and training in marine energy, applications in the blue economy, commercialization best practices, or other topics of interest.
About the two phases
In the CONCEPT Phase, competitors selected a blue economy application their proposed system, subsystem, or component would support, and identified an integration challenge their solution intends to address. Concepts can power any off-grid use in the ocean with marine energy, which includes power from waves, tides, and ocean currents. In November 2024, DOE awarded $10,000 each to 20 CONCEPT Phase winners, including Team Michigan Tech.
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Phase 1 CONCEPT $10,000 · Nov. 2024 |
Phase 2 — Current DEVELOP $75,000 · 2025 |
Next step Future tech development Post-prize pathway |
In the DEVELOP Phase,awardees work to advance their concept and prepare it for future technology development after the prize concludes.
CONCEPT Phase winners
The following teams are CONCEPT Phase winners (as announced by DOE, in alphabetical order). Team Michigan Tech, based in the university’s Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, consists of Abishek Subramanian (PhD student); Zach Hardy (Undergraduate student); Dr. Shangyan Zou; Dr. Tania Demonte Gonzales; Dr. Gordon Parker; and Dr. Wayne Weaver.
| BlueBio&Beyond — Hoboken, NJ | Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering — San Luis Obispo, CA |
| Changzheng Huang — Irvine, CA | E-Wave Technologies — Hoboken, NJ |
| ODU Ocean Wave Energy — Norfolk, VA | OffshoreLink — Hoboken, NJ |
| Oscilla Power Inc. — Seattle, WA | Pittsburgh Coastal Energy — Pittsburgh, PA |
| Poseidon’s Kite — Keswick, VA | SEAquestration Team — Ithaca, NY |
| Seatrec, Inc. — Vista, CA | Streaming Energy — Wendell, NC |
| Team Michigan Tech — Houghton, MI | Wave Water Works — Farmington Hills, MI |
| WaveRiders — Calverton, MD | Waverocker Energy — Montrose, CA |
About the Power at Sea Prize
The Power at Sea Prize was established and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydropower and Hydrokinetic Office (H2O), formerly the Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO). It is part of DOE’s American-Made program and is administered by the National Laboratory of the Rockies.
The prize was developed in collaboration with the following federal partners:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory • U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System • NOAA National Sea Grant • NOAA Ocean Acidification Program • NOAA Fisheries Office of Aquaculture
More information about the Power at Sea Prize, including the full DOE announcement and details on all participating teams, is available at the link below.