American-Made Promoting Registration of Inverters and Modules with Ecolabel (PRIME) Prize

More consumers are paying attention to the environmental impacts of the manufacture and the end-of-life cycle of solar photovoltaic (PV) equipment. As the U.S. federal government ramps up solar adoption in construction and power purchase agreements over the next few years, they’ll need to purchase solar products that are certified with certain ecolabels to meet sustainability goals. 

The American-Made Promoting Registration of Inverters and Modules with Ecolabel (PRIME) Prize is a two-phase, $2.7 million competition aimed at increasing EPEAT registration of solar PV modules and inverters. The goal is to help manufacturers meet the high bar for EPEAT product standards and make their products more attractive to purchasers with sustainability goals. 

The prize incentivizes the registration of PV module and inverter products through the EPEAT ecolabel. EPEAT is an ecolabel operated and maintained by the Global Electronics Council (GEC) for certain electronic products, including solar PV modules and inverters.  

The PRIME Prize offers a total prize pool of $2.7 million in cash prizes across two phases. 

• Phase 1: Manufacturers submit letters of intent to register up to four PV module or inverter products with EPEAT and provide proof of participation with the GEC. 
• Phase 2: Manufacturers validate that their products meet all required EPEAT criteria and submit proof of EPEAT product registration from the GEC.

Prize Program Goal Requirements: https://americanmadechallenges.org/challenges/prime/docs/PRIME-Prize-Rules.pdf#page=11

Estimated Total Program Funding: