NREL Launches $9 Million Solar Desalination Prize Competition – Colorado On April 28, with support from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) kicked off the Solar Desalination Prize, a $9 million competition that’s part of the American-Made Challenges series. The competition is designed to accelerate the development of systems that use solar-thermal energy to produce clean drinking water from salt water. NREL manages each of the American-Made Challenges for the DOE. (LINK). HIWI042020-04-29T14:15:22+02:00