What Are the Direct Air Capture Prizes? (Text Version)

This is the text version of the video What Are the Direct Air Capture (DAC) Prizes.

The American-Made DAC Pre-Commercial EPIC Prize and DAC Pre-Commercial Technology Prize are now accepting applications. Read more to learn about the competitions, their impact, and how teams can get involved.

[Narrator speaks] 

Today, one of our biggest challenges is removing carbon dioxide from the air and preventing other greenhouse gases from speeding up a global rise in temperature.

[Text on screen: Agriculture, Electricity Production, Transportation, Residential Homes, Deforestation, Industry.]

The U.S. Department of Energy is working hard to tackle the climate crisis by advancing technologies that can prevent, lessen, and remove carbon pollutants in the air.

One promising technology is called direct air capture also known as DAC.

[Text on Screen: Direct Air Capture. DAC.]

Direct air capture is the process of capturing and separating carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It is a critical tool in counterbalancing industries, like agriculture, shipping, and aviation that have been difficult to decarbonize.

But to make an impact on a large scale we need to accelerate DAC technologies and the companies working on them. That's why we're launching the American-Made Direct Air Capture prizes.

[Text on Screen: American-Made Direct Air Capture Prizes.]

The suite of DAC prizes work together to advance carbon dioxide removal technologies and the incubators that make the process possible.

[Text on Screen: Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management.]

Funded by the Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the National Energy Technology Laboratory, the DAC prizes offer up to $7.7 million split between two prizes: the DAC Pre-Commercial EPIC Prize and the DAC Pre-Commercial Tech Prize.

[Text on screen: $7.7 million split between two prizes. The DAC Pre-Commercial EPIC Prize. The DAC Pre-Commercial Tech Prize.]

These prizes focus specifically on companies and technologies in the pre-commercialization stage of innovation.

[Text on screen: The DAC Pre-Commercial Energy Program for Innovation Clusters.]

The DAC Pre-Commercial Energy Program for Innovation Clusters, or EPIC, Prize offers $3.7 million to incubator teams that submit creative impactful plans to support entrepreneurs and innovators in the DAC space.

[Text on screen: EPIC. $3.7 million in prizes.]

It aims to support both emerging and established incubators and accelerators to develop strong, equitable innovation clusters resources and connections for DAC startups and entrepreneurs.

[Text on Screen: The DAC Pre-Commercial Tech Prize. $3.2 million in prizes. $800,000 in technical assistance.]

The DAC Pre-Commercial Technology Prize awards $3.2 million in cash prizes and $800,000 and technical assistance to teams that identify a critical need in the DAC industry, develop a solution to address this gap, and test the idea to a degree of scale.

It aims to focus on the steps of ideation and entrepreneurship needed to prepare a technology and business for commercialization.

There's no singular perfect solution to reverse all impacts of climate change, but direct air capture technologies and the people advancing them provide a clear path toward a cleaner, more sustainable, and environmentally just future for all of us.

Visit AmericanMadeChallenges.org/DACprizes to join the American-made Direct Air Capture Prizes.

[Text on screen: AmericanMadeChallenges.org/DACprizes]