On October 25, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry announced the launch of the Water Security Grand Challenge, a White House initiated, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) led framework to advance transformational technology and innovation to meet the global need for safe, secure, and affordable water.
Using a coordinated suite of prizes, competitions, early-stage research and development funding opportunities, critical partnerships, and other programs, the Water Security Grand Challenge sets the following goals for the United States to reach 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.
DOE will partner with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the Water Security Grand Challenge, and is pursuing additional opportunities to collaborate with other agencies, industry, and stakeholders.
"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."
You can learn more about the challenge here!
