Georgetown University is hosting a multi-year incentive competition that challenges small- to medium-size US communities to implement creative strategies to increase energy efficiency. Forty-nine communities have signed a letter of intent to compete, so far.
Georgetown is using the prize to tap the creativity and spirit of competition between communities across the country to develop sustainable energy-saving innovations, specifically household and municipal energy consumption of electricity and natural gas.
Communities with a population between 5,000 and 250,000 (8,892 communities in total) are eligible to compete for the $5 million prize.
The application phase of the contest runs through June 2014. The contest concludes in 2017 with one community winning the $5 million purse, to be spent on energy efficiency programs in its community.