U.S. Department of Energy
National Clean Energy
Business Plan Competition
Click the map for a larger image.
Over three years, funds totaling $2 million dollars will be distributed to six regional competitions with the objective of building a new generation of energy leaders, a strong workforce, and an overall green economy.
FLoW's Western Region includes Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, American Samoa and Guam. It embraces a wide diversity of academic talent and business acumen, bent on devising new clean energy solutions to our power problems.
In building the competition throughout the region, FLoW uses the advantage of:
- Connections to the strong business development and entrepreneurship community of Southern California,
- Proximity to one of the largest clusters of cleantech companies in the country.
Learn more about the competition and the Startup America initiative.
About FLoW
In 2011, the California Institute of Technology led by the Resnick Institute, in partnership with University of Southern California and the UC Los Angeles received a $360,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to accelerate cleantech innovation and foster student entrepreneurship through a Western Regional business plan competition.
This consortium, called First Look West (FLoW), builds upon the mission of the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) to improve energy efficiency and productivity and bring reliable, affordable clean technologies to market.
The DOE developed the $2 million National University Clean Energy Business Challenge (see inset) under the Obama Administration's Startup America initiative to broaden innovation and commercialization efforts, and to champion a nation-wide energy entrepreneurship ecosystem.
FLoW's mission is to support the development of entrepreneurial talent within American universities, and to accelerate the movement of leading edge technologies out of the lab and into the marketplace.
The first year
In its first year, FLoW attracted over 100 contestants from 34 universities in 12 states. Over 70 mentors and 40 judges worked with more than 30 teams in a six month process, culminating in the top six contestants competing at the Regional Judging and Awards ceremony on May 1, 2012.
Ideas spanned battery materials for portable electronic devices to net energy+ home kits, to hydroponic farms to apps for tracking energy use. The winning team, Stanford Nitrogen Group, participated in the DOE's National Competition, held in Washington D.C. June 13, 2012.