The Milken Institute and the Motsepe Foundation have launched the Milken-Motsepe Prize in Green Energy, a $2 million or R33.8 million prize competition to reward entrepreneurs and innovators working to address one of the most pressing and immediate challenges of our time—access to green, renewable energy.
The winning individual or team will be awarded $1 million, with an additional $1 million disbursed throughout the competition as finalists progress and field test ideas. Registration for the prize is open now. There is no cost to apply, and anyone, anywhere in the world is eligible to submit their idea for consideration.
This prize competition in Green Energy is designed to cast a wide net for inclusive innovation, providing funding, support, and product testing to find the best solutions for sustainable and renewable energy. Currently, more than 600 million people across the African continent lack access to electricity. Lack of reliable energy hinders economic growth, from startups in rural zones to medium enterprises in capital cities.
Milken-Motsepe Prize registrants have the chance to play a vital role in creating affordable, sustainable, and renewable energy access for a world in need of innovative solutions to unlock human potential and increase financial and social mobility.
“Good ideas can and do come from anywhere in the world. Entrepreneurs and new technologies can provide the solutions that will secure sources of sustainable and renewable energy for generations to come, in Africa and around the globe. The Milken-Motsepe Prize in Green Energy will catalyze market creation for innovative, renewable energy solutions and drive private sector growth as well as improve the socioeconomic living conditions of millions in Africa.” said Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe, Co-Founder and CEO of the Motsepe Foundation.
Winning teams will demonstrate the ability to deploy innovative green energy solutions at scale in Africa, with the goal of dramatically expanding renewable energy access. Teams should make use of new technologies or adapt existing technologies in innovative ways to generate at least 60 kWh of off-grid electricity daily (24 hours) using green energy sources.
“Population size and energy needs are both rising rapidly, creating an urgent need to find sustainable sources of renewable energy. Prize competitions have proven over and over the power of human ingenuity to solve seemingly intractable problems. We hope to see a broad range of innovative ideas on how to create scalable, green energy systems that will allow for increased economic activity on the African continent and beyond,” said Emily Musil Church, PhD, senior director at the Milken Institute.
This is the second competition in the Milken-Motsepe Innovation Prize program, a series of multimillion-dollar prize competitions for entrepreneurial and technological solutions that accelerate progress toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa and globally. The first prize, the Milken-Motsepe Prize in AgriTech, was announced in 2021 and will be awarded in May 2023 at the Milken Institute Global Conference.
The Milken-Motsepe Prize in Green Energy is focused on the energy crisis in Africa, but the ideas and solutions generated could be used to help the 940 million people, or 13 per cent, who do not have access to electricity globally.
