For the fourth straight year, NSTAR teamed with the United States Department of Energy (U.S. DOE) to sponsor the NSTAR MIT Clean Energy Prize, a national student business plan competition that helps turn clean energy ideas into successful businesses.

Open to university teams from across the country, the annual competition offers mentoring, coaching and cash prizes for commercializing the best clean energy innovations. The competition has helped launch over 28 companies that have secured over $85 million in investment capital and research grants.

In 2011, 80 teams from over 40 universities competed in clean energy categories that aimed to diversify energy supplies, advance energy efficiency, or reduce environmental impacts from energy production, transportation and consumption.

Twenty-five semifinalists chosen by prominent judges received one-on-one mentoring from industry leaders, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. These top-notch teams were showcased at the Hynes Convention Center in early May. Five finalists moved on to compete for the $200,000 grand prize awarded by NSTAR and the U.S. DOE.

Since 2008, the competition has provided hundreds of teams from over 60 universities with the skills, knowledge and expertise needed to bring clean energy technologies, products and services to the marketplace.

Past winners that have gone on to form companies in Massachusetts include: FastCAP Systems which is developing an energy storage system for hybrid vehicle batteries; Levant Power Corp which makes energy-recovering shock absorbers that reduce vehicle fuel consumption; and FloDesign Wind Turbine which has developed a high-efficiency wind turbine inspired by airplane jet engine designs.

The MIT Clean Energy Prize competition was founded by MIT, NSTAR and the U.S. Department of Energy in 2008 to catalyze a new generation of clean energy solutions through innovation and entrepreneurship. The competition, affiliated with MIT’s $100K Entrepreneurship Competition, is run by MIT graduate students under the leadership of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center.

Previous Winners:

• 2011 - CoolChip Technologies - Created patented technology that reduces data center cooling needs.
• 2010 - C3Nano Inc. - Created a revolutionary design that will increase the efficiency of solar photovoltaic panels.
• 2009 - Husk Insulation - Patented an innovative process to convert plant-based agricultural waste into thin, high-grade insulation that delivers up to 10 times the insulative effectiveness of conventional, petroleum-based insulation.
• 2008 - FloDesign Wind Turbine Corp - Designed a breakthrough wind turbine which is geared to perform efficiently in a wide range of wind conditions – particularly in areas with lower wind speeds – which current wind turbines are not effectively designed for.