The mission of the Energy Department is to ensure America’s security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions
The American-Made Building Envelope Innovation Prize is designed to motivate innovation in the production of high-performance, cost-effective secondary glazing systems, enhancing the efficiency of commercial windows. The program seeks to stimulate the adoption of novel solutions for window inefficiencies, contributing to decarbonization efforts and optimizing building envelopes for electrification. Aiming at a total prize pool of up to $2 million, the competition unfolds across three phases: Design Concept, Prototype, and Commercialization, each concluding with awarded prizes based on various performance and development metrics. It emphasizes the need for solutions that can be rapidly deployed in the secondary glazing systems market, with a particular focus on ensuring equity through pilots in low-income multifamily or underserved public sector buildings. The prize encourages the creation of innovative window solutions to increase energy efficiency in commercial buildings, targeting the vast number of U.S. commercial buildings with single-pane windows to significantly reduce heating and cooling demands.