Background
The Department of Defense (DoD) consumes an enormous amount of operational and facility energy to provide a combat-credible force. In fact, the DoD is one of the largest single consumers of energy globally, and the Air Force is the largest user of fuel energy in the US Government. The way the DoD generates, transmits, stores, and uses this enormous amount of energy today is both a paramount mission enabler and a potentially crippling vulnerability.
In the future, fossil fuels, the world's primary energy source, will become scarcer, while our energy needs grow. Our continued reliance on fossil fuels will lead to physical and geopolitical challenges in the security landscape, while alternative sources pose other risks of their own. As the Department continues to reorient itself for great-power competition, the need to build more resilient infrastructure and supply chains has become more urgent. The time has come to reimagine our usage, generation, transportation, and storage of energy.
Reimagining Energy Challenge
AFWERX, the U.S. Air Force’s innovation catalyst, recently launched the Reimagining Energy for the DoD Challenge, an open crowdsourcing program that aims to reduce the U.S. military’s reliance on fossil fuels and accelerate it’s shift toward renewable and resilient energy sources. This effort supports the DoD’s mission to deter conflict and ensure the nation’s security, and it also stands to supercharge the clean energy industry.
Academics, entrepreneurs, and organizations of all sizes in the U.S. and allied countries were invited to participate in this opportunity to receive government funding. Solutions ranged from practical innovations that are deployable today to moonshot ideas that require decades-long development. On October 29th, 2020, participants were eligible to submit in up to six topic categories:
Fixed and Mobile Energy Generation
Energy Transmission and Distribution
Fixed and Mobile Energy Storage
New Warfighting and Operational Equipment
Data Availability for Improved Planning and Decision Making
Energy Culture, Policy, and Education
Nearly 1,000 applications were received from all over the world, including the United States, Canada, the UK, Romania, Argentina, Germany, and India. A thorough review process in mid December narrowed the selection down to the top 177 companies, who will have the opportunity to pitch their cutting-edge ideas to a panel of evaluators and subject matter experts. Selected submissions advance to formal agreements in less than six months on average, dramatically reducing the typical multi-year contracting process.
Since launching its first challenge in 2018, AFWERX has awarded more than $33 million in DoD contracts and investments in programming participants, resulting in 28 solution prototypes. Millions more slated to be awarded for solutions currently under review.
