American-Made Is the Fast Track to Energy Innovation
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) American-Made program transforms innovative ideas into real energy solutions through prizes, collegiate competitions, vouchers, and opportunities to work with its network of experts. American-Made activates innovators, entrepreneurs, and everyday Americans to help science and technology solutions go further, faster.
Measuring Success
Learn more about program impact
100+
Prizes and Competitions
300+
Vouchers
$500M
In Support
550+
Network Members
6000+
Eligible Submissions
1200+
Teams Funded
How American-Made Works
DOE’s American-Made program helps innovators overcome hurdles to solve energy problems. American-Made leverages public-private partnerships and incentivizes competitors with challenges to win cash prizes, earn vouchers, and collaborate with top researchers in world-class laboratories, academia, and industry. The program’s Innovation Engine Model ensures participants can more rapidly develop and deploy technologies that can address critical energy needs.
![Illustration of a person crawling toward a stack of money (phase 1); a person upright, setting to run toward a larger stack of money (phase 2); and a person striding to the finish line toward a trophy (phase 3).]](/_next/image?url=%2Fsteps.jpg&w=2048&q=75)
Prizes and Competitions
Explore American-Made's open prizes and competitions for opportunities to accelerate big ideas in science and technology, as well as to leverage resources and connections with some of the brightest minds working in science, technology, and industry.
Vouchers
Learn how to redeem vouchers to gain access to top-tier DOE national laboratory facilities and work with some of the nation’s best scientists and researchers. Collaborate on modeling, simulation, testing, validation, analysis, and more with people who overcome obstacles in science and technology.
Network
By joining an American-Made Challenge, participants gain access to a network of more than 550 organizations, including DOE national laboratory researchers and professionals from U.S. accelerators, incubators, universities, and facilities.
Success Stories
SunFlex Solar
Solar Prize Round 2 Winner
A winning solar tech solution can look like anything—even an unassuming sheet of aluminum foil. For the SunFlex Solar team, foil inspired their Solar Prize Round 2 winning design of an aluminum electrode for the interconnection of back-contact silicon solar cells. SunFlex's technology reduces module and cell production costs while maintaining the efficiency and aesthetic appeal of modules built with back-contact cells. With their $650,000 cash prize, they’ve purchased a lab-scale laser unit for tech development, funded domestic and international intellectual property filings, secured lab space at Arizona State University, and funded a Chief Operating Officer’s work on business development. Read full story
ReJoule
Three-Time Prize Winner
ReJoule was the first team in Solar Prize history to win the Round 6 grand prize and the optional Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Contest—winning a total of more than $700,000 in cash and $150,00 in vouchers over the course of the three-phase competition. Their diagnostic tool to assess an electric vehicle’s battery health enables fast screening of used batteries and certification to repurpose them in stationary energy storage systems. ReJoule redeemed their voucher winnings at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where researchers are performing a techno-economic analysis of the tool to inform ReJoule’s value proposition to communities seeking to store renewable energy. Read full story