ENDING DESTRUCTIVE WILDFIRES
Phase
Pre-Launch
ENDING DESTRUCTIVE WILDFIRES
$11 Million
Prize Purse
The $11M XPRIZE Wildfire is a 4-year competition to innovate firefighting technologies that will end destructive wildfires.
XPRIZE Wildfire is made possible thanks to the generosity of Co-Title Sponsors: Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and Pacific Gas & Electric and Presenting Sponsor: Minderoo Foundation
PRIZE CATEGORIES
The competition is designed to synergistically transform how fires are managed and fought across two tracks:
$5M Autonomous Wildfire Response Track
$5M Space-Based Wildfire Detection and Intelligence Track
$1M Lockheed Martin Accurate Detection Bonus Prize
THE IMPACT
XPRIZE Wildfire will spur innovation across a wide range of firefighting technologies, transforming the practices of a crucial industry that have not seen major change in a century. The resulting technology will dramatically improve the detection and suppression of destructive wildfires, enabling safe management of all high-risk fires.
The Challenge
Globally, Extreme Wildfire Events (EWEs) are becoming more frequent. EWEs burn bigger, at a higher intensity, and can quickly sprawl out of control. While they represent only around 3% of all wildfires, EWEs account for 80% of total associated fire-damages and are increasingly contributing to global greenhouse gas emissions and worsening health impacts from pollutants.
These large and destructive wildfires wreak havoc on ecosystems worldwide, especially in the expanding Wildland-Urban Interface, where homes, businesses, and major infrastructure are most at risk, and where wildfire control and suppression activities are increasingly outperformed.
How to Win
The winning technology in the Space-Based Detection and Intelligence Track will address the greatest barrier to how we currently fight fires by rapidly and accurately detecting all fires across a vast and remote area and transmitting data to ground stations.
The $1M Lockheed Martin Wildfire Detection Bonus Prize incentivizes innovations in accurate and precise detection and sizing up of wildfires.