The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) launched a multistage competition that seeks to incorporate renewable energy into ocean observation systems.
The DEVELOP Competition tasks the participants to build technologies that can monitor, map and explore the ocean in a bid to enhance NOAA's hurricane forecast capabilities, the agency said Monday.
Competitors will be given opportunities to design, build and demonstrate their prototypes within a controlled environment during the challenge. Winners will receive $2.4 million in cash along with access to in-kind support, tank and sea-based tests. The competition's design phase has begun and will run through Feb. 16.
NOAA and DOE intends to implement wave energy harvesting technologies into autonomous underwater vehicles to develop self-charging ocean observing systems for hurricane monitoring activities.