GOLDEN, Colo. — The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), along with industry partner CLEAResult, is seeking crowdsourced ideas for residential energy efficiency applications for smartphones as part of the DOE JUMP initiative.

NREL’s innovation challenge is focused on ideas and topics related to improving efficiency in residential buildings. Concepts will be evaluated by a team of judges. There is also a public voting period on the JUMP website. The winning innovation will be awarded a $3,000 cash prize and in-kind support from CLEAResult.

JUMP, launched by DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) last year, is an online crowdsourcing community that is co-hosted by NREL, ORNL, and three other DOE national laboratories, as well as top companies and organizations in the buildings industry. JUMP, which stands for Join in the discussion, Unveil innovation, Motivate transformation, and Promote technology-to-market, now has six open technology challenges. This platform provides an opportunity for innovators, particularly small entrepreneurs, to present ideas for new energy-efficient building technologies to private and public sector leaders in research and development.

“The objective is to leverage citizen science to tackle energy-efficiency challenges in the buildings sector,” said Lieko Earle, NREL senior engineer. “Our call for innovation is inviting members of the general public to submit their best ideas.”

Additionally, JUMP provides opportunities for all users to comment and vote on posted ideas. The community discussion helps DOE, the labs, and industry partners gauge the market’s interest in the topic and potential solutions.

For this innovation challenge, NREL has partnered with CLEAResult. CLEAResult, headquartered in Austin, Texas, is one of the largest providers of energy efficiency programs and services in North America. CLEAResult designs and manages energy optimization services for utility companies, as well as residential, institutional, commercial, and industrial organizations.

NREL is DOE’s primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. For more information, visit www.nrel.gov.

Publication date: 6/7/2016 

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