To help move clean energy technologies from the laboratory to commercial production, DTE Energy and U-M 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, to be awarded in spring 2009.
“Our goal is to drive promising clean energy ideas and technologies from the research lab to commercialization,” says Knut Simonsen, president, DTE Energy Ventures. “This competition will encourage students and faculty to integrate new technology with a sound business plan and it will reward the winning teams with additional resources so they can further develop their ideas. We also believe the competition will help reinvigorate a culture of entrepreneurship in Michigan.”
The Ross School of Business Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, College of Engineering Center for Entrepreneurship, and the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute, along with student organizations MPowered Entrepreneurship and the Ross Energy Club are organizing the competition. It is open to students and faculty from all Michigan colleges and universities. Each team must have at least one U-M student or faculty member.
“The marriage of business and engineering talents that this competition will create will be of great benefit to clean tech commercialization,” says Thomas Kinnear, executive director of the Zell Lurie Institute.
The competition will require that teams focus on business ideas that support renewable energy, energy efficiency, smart grid technologies, environmental control technologies, plug-in electric vehicles or energy storage.
“This competition brings out the best of both industry and academic life,” says Gary Was, director of the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute. “It will inspire some of the most promising minds in this state to direct their knowledge and creativity to the great challenges of energy, and give them the experience, and excitement, of bringing world-class research to market.”
The business plan entries will be judged by independent panels that will include leaders from the venture capital, business, industry and academic communities.
The prize money will help the winning teams start new businesses that can contribute to Michigan’s emerging role as a leader in clean energy. Assuming this initial competition is successful, it is envisioned that it will be held in subsequent years with an annual prize pool of $200,000.
This competition coincides with a number of other energy and sustainability related initiatives at the University, including the LSA theme semester Energy Futures: Society, Innovation and Technology, which will examine the human and social behaviors associated with energy demand.
Applications and details of the competition are available on the Clean Energy Prize Web site: www.dtecleanenergyprize.com.
