Department of Energy Announces New Challenge to Provide Communities with Clean Water

The Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced the launch of its Water Security Grand Challenge in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to advance transformational technology and innovation to meet the global need for safe, secure, and affordable water.

“The Grand Challenge will incentivize new technologies aimed at solving one of the most important global challenges of our time – providing access to clean, safe, and secure water,” said EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “EPA looks forward to partnering with DOE to help bring clean and safe water to communities across the country and find innovative ways to transform non-traditional water sources into resources.”

Through a series of prizes, competitions, early-stage research and development opportunities and other programs, the Water Security Grand Challenge hopes to accomplish the following goals for the U.S. by 2030:

• Launch desalination technologies that deliver cost-competitive clean water
• Transform the energy sector’s produced water from a waste to a resource
• Achieve near-zero water impact for new thermoelectric power plants, and significantly lower freshwater use intensity within the existing fleet
• Double resource recovery from municipal wastewater
• Develop small, modular energy-water systems for urban, rural, tribal, national security, and disaster response settings.

For more information about the Water Security Grand Challenge, click here: https://www.energy.gov/water-security-grand-challenge