The National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition (NCEBPC) is a US Department of Energy (DOE) program in six regions in the United States in Building Technologies, Advanced Manufacturing, Vehicle Technologies, Federal Energy Management Program, Weather and Intergovernmental, Biomass Program, Geothermal Technologies, Fuel Cells Technologies, Solar Energy Technologies and Wind and Hydropower Technologies, as recognized by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
It was launched in 2011, with the Obama Administration ‘s Startup America Initiative, a White House campaign to inspire and promote entrepreneurship. Each regional winner receives a prize at the National Grand Prize at a competition held in Washington, DC. In the competition, student ventures the top US universities form a complete business plan that commercializes a technology developed at their school or one of the National Labs. Venture teams are ranking on their clean energy impact, solution creativity, execution and financial strategy, market and customer knowledge, and team composition, chemistry and commitment.