Addressing climate change requires innovation across the world, across industries, and across startups and multi-national corporations. From distributed energy to storage solutions to efficiency and optimization software—clean technology investment and innovation is surging.

With this surge in demand comes a rapid proliferation of startups working to solve today’s biggest energy challenges. To help foster this innovation, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has launched the AWS Clean Energy Accelerator on May 6.

The AWS Clean Energy Accelerator is AWS’s first accelerator focused on fostering rapid growth of clean tech innovations. The goal of the AWS Energy Accelerator is to help startups working in clean energy accelerate their impact, access additional resources, and expand their reach. Applications are open and proposals are due by June 8, 2021. AWS is offering this opportunity in collaboration with Freshwater Advisors, a national innovation consultancy and venture catalyst.

“Investing in renewable energy is one of the many actions Amazon is taking as part of The Climate Pledge, a commitment to be net-zero carbon by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement. This commitment will require innovation from large scale, established organizations to startups across the energy industry,” Shane Owenby, vice president of energy at AWS, said. “This is why we are supporting clean tech founders to accelerate deployment of their innovations through programs like the AWS Clean Energy Accelerator.”

AWS and Freshwaters Advisors are accepting applications from startups working with clean technology for energy storage, monitoring, carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS), seismic activity, hydrogen generation for energy, smart grid, geothermal optimization, material science, as well as other areas of opportunity.

“Over the past eight years, Freshwater has run tech scouting assignments for more than 20 leading corporations in the energy and industrial sectors seeking to partner with the brightest emerging technology based startups to bring new innovative solutions to market. AWS Clean Energy Accelerator provides a unique platform to catalyze these collaborations and bring new solutions to market,” David Weinstein, founder and CEO of Freshwater Advisors, said. “We are delighted and honored to be working with AWS to launch this new accelerator and working towards collaborative solutions to help solve the energy and climate crisis.”

Applications will be judged on several factors including the innovation and unique nature of the project, the overall value the solution will bring to the industry, the creative application of AWS to solve problems, and the team’s ability to deliver on an identified opportunity.

Together with Freshwater Advisors, AWS will select 10 startups to participate in this five-week accelerator. Selected startups may receive AWS Activate Promotional Credit, as well as technical, business, and go-to-market mentorship from AWS clean energy experts. The program will also offer collaboration opportunities with AWS energy customers and members of Amazon Partner Network (APN) looking for clean energy solutions.