The Energy Department's SunShot Catalyst prize winners from the competition’s first cycle pose with their awards. | Photo Courtesy of NREL.

The second cycle of the Catalyst prize program is taking off with today's announcement of the finalists who will enter the prototyping contest. The finalists were selected following the business innovation contest, designed to help teams form and explore business solutions to the most compelling problems facing solar energy.

These solar finalists are: Bright Harvest Solar, Energy Equity, Hot 4 Solar, MapMySolar, MySunBuddy, RE-volv, SolarBook, Solar Action Network, Solar Doctor, Solar Land Solutions LLC, Solar Merchant, SunSwarm, Tangerine+, and YouSaveWithSolar.com. Learn more about the solar finalists and watch their pitch videos.

For this cycle of Catalyst, we teamed up with the Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office (BTO) to develop innovative solutions for reducing energy use while maintaining occupant comfort and promoting better engagement of building occupants. With added prize money, five BTO finalists will also advance to the prototyping contest: Building DataCloud, Built Spectrum, Inc., Kinetic Buildings, Livable Analytics, and One Oak Systems. Learn more about the BTO finalists and watch their pitch videos.

Between September 28 and November 30, these 19 teams will build prototype solutions and products that address challenges faced by the solar community or improve energy efficient, comfortable building design and operation. The prototyping contest will end with Demo Day in mid-December, where all finalists will publically demonstrate their products before a panel of investors, judges, and their peers. Based on their performances, the Department will award up to $500,000 in additional funds to advance these early stage solutions toward commercialization.