First Round of Community Clean Energy Coalition Prize Winners Announced

HBCU Community Development Action Coalition Named Phase One Winner and Awarded $30,000

MIAMI , FLORIDA, UNITED STATES, February 15, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Ten winners in Phase One of the inaugural Community Clean Energy Coalition Prize were recently announced by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), including HBCU Community Development Action Coalition (HBCU CDAC). The Community Clean Energy Coalition Prize encourages and recognize coalitions helping underrepresented communities to address local energy challenges using clean, sustainable solutions.

Through its Clean Energy Initiative (CEI), HBCU CDAC was selected and awarded $30,000 to be used toward building on its commitment to expand clean energy awareness on HBCU campuses and within host communities.

CDAC’s CEI through the HBCU Green Town Project will further demonstrate this commitment by helping to move deployment beyond individual households to scalable, community-level clean energy solutions like community solar.

CEI started in Greensboro, North Carolina in 2021, in collaboration with the largest HBCU, North Carolina A&T, and expanded into the neighboring city of Winston-Salem. CEI now receives requests from elected officials, universities, local representatives, and members of corporate America wishing to partner with CDAC and CEI to scale its model, which is grounded in the principles of energy justice and facilitated through high levels of community engagement and awareness; the goal is to bolster and facilitate equitable communities via environmental justice, economic development, and innovation.

CDAC plans to launch the HBCU Green Town Project at four HBCUs: Denmark Technical College (Denmark South Carolina), Claflin University and South Carolina State University (Orangeburg, South Carolina), and Dillard University (New Orleans, Louisiana). This constellation of HBCU cities include two smaller towns and one major city, all of which have significant minority populations as well as well-known histories of disenfranchisement and civil unrest due to issues of inequality.

“The timing of the Community Clean Energy Coalition Prize is apropos to the era in which we live and the many discussions around environmental justice and the planned efforts to help mitigate inequity in our country, particularly in disenfranchised communities,” said Karen Soares, program director for the Clean Energy Initiative. “HBCU CDAC has a longstanding commitment to community, and this challenge inspires us to turn moments like this into a global movement for change.”

In this next phase of the prize, HBCU CDAC will work toward building their proposed multiorganization coalition, clearly defining their community need, and ensuring their plan aligns with at least one DOE Justice40 policy priority.

At the culmination of Phase Two in May 2023, the team will be eligible to compete for an additional $115,000 by submitting a coalition implementation plan, which they will have the opportunity to present at a Community Summit Event in December 2023. The $50,000 cash grand prize will be awarded to one winning coalition at the Summit.


About the American-Made Community Clean Energy Coalition Prize
The goal of the three-phase Community Clean Energy Coalition Prize is to help community coalitions—made up of nonprofits, city governments, school systems, and other community organizations—come together to develop a strategy to address a local clean energy opportunity or inequity. Strategies may include student education, workforce trainings, or implementation of new technologies that align with the goals of the White House’s Justice40 Initiative.

The Community Clean Energy Coalition Prize is part of the American-Made program, which fast tracks innovation through prizes, training, teaming, and mentoring. Teams competing in the Community Clean Energy Coalition Prize will have access to the American-Made Network, connecting the nation’s entrepreneurs and innovators to America’s national labs and the private sector. Mentoring, tools, resources, and support through the American-Made Network help accelerate the transition of ideas into real-world solutions to achieve clean energy goals.

Follow the Community Clean Energy Coalition Prize on HeroX.com for all prize-related updates. The Community Clean Energy Coalition Prize is directed and administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and is funded through the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Suzan A McDowell
Circle of One Marketing
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