Clean Energy Prize

The competition was founded to help move clean energy technologies from the laboratory to commercial production. DTE Energy, through its DTE Energy Ventures subsidiary, and the University of Michigan are challenging teams from Michigan colleges and universities to develop the best business plans for bringing new clean energy technologies to market. The teams with winning ideas will share $100,000 in prize money, with a grand prize of $65,000 for the top team.

The  multi-round process is geared to reward top clean energy business ideas and provide students with experience and expert feedback on what it takes to create a successful clean energy startup business. Each successive round requires more information about the proposed business — leading up to a full business plan — to be submitted by the advancing teams.

In the first round of judging last month, 14 teams advanced from the 20 teams that entered the competition.  Those teams submitted seven-page market and financial overviews for Round 2 judging.

The advancing teams:

• Algal Scientific — Turn-key water treatment systems that combine wastewater treatment with biofuel production using algal growth bioreactors and proprietary processing technology.
• CTW International — Land-based projects that deliver climate, biodiversity, and community benefits based on accountable metrics and carbon accounting.
• Energy Technology Components — Flexible fuel electricity generation products for use in military, trucking, and distributed power markets.
• Husk — Convert agricultural waste into thin, high-grade insulation for the refrigeration industry that delivers a significant improvement over conventional, petroleum-based insulation.
• Lean Energy — Complete energy efficiency retrofit solution for residential customers.
• SITumbra — Rigid solar shading window system configured to respond to seasonal variations with optimal energy efficiency.
• Vortex Hydro Energy — A patented technology that derives clean energy from moving water

Details of the competition are available on the Clean Energy Prize Web site.

This year, international food prices of all major food commodities have increased significantly. In response to the current development challenge, the U.S. government will commit over $5.5 billion in fiscal years 2008 and 2009 to fight world hunger, including $1.8 billion of new resources in three areas: immediate and expanded humanitarian response; increasing productivity and addressing infrastructure constraints; and support for trade liberalization and increased use of advanced agricultural technologies.

This dramatic change in the global food landscape – the major increase in food prices – is being driven by several key demographic, economic, and agricultural factors:

• Shrinking of global grain stocks as a result of consumer demand growth (2%) outstripping productivity growth (1%) over the past several years.
• Increases in planting, harvesting, transport, processing and retail costs, as well as those of critical inputs, including seeds and fertilizers, driven by high oil prices.
• A relatively small contribution from increased biofuels production.
• Rising global demand for food products, driven largely by the welcome acceleration of economic growth in the economies of fast-developing countries and associated demand for food products.
• Export restrictions that reduced the supply of key agricultural commodities available on world markets.
• Recent production losses caused by droughts in some food exporting countries.
• Low investment in agriculture in developing countries over the past two decades, particularly in research and development.

Prices are likely to remain higher than in the past for the next five to seven years. These price increases can have major impacts on households in developing countries, which spend up to 70% of their income on food. The funds committed by the U.S. government will build on past or continuing investments in agriculture, including investments made through the President’s Initiative to End Hunger in Africa and the Millennium Challenge Account.

For more information about USAID and its programs please visit www.usaid.gov.

The American people, through the U.S. Agency for International Development, have provided economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide for nearly 50 years.