DURHAM, N.C. – A team of three student entrepreneurs at the Nicholas School of the Environment have won the $50,000 top prize in the 2011 Duke Startup Challenge.

Matt Kaufmann, Willem Fadrhonc and Tripp Hyde took home top honors at the competition’s finals on April 8 for their proposed startup, HyTower Energy Storage, which converts out-of-service water towers into power storage units.

Their startup beat a record 110 entrants in this year’s challenge.

The Duke Startup Challenge, now in its 11th year, is a student-led entrepreneurship competition in which student teams develop real-world business startups based on their academic research and professional  expertise.

Kaufmann, Fadrhonc and Hyde’s winning startup, HyTower Energy Storage, uses a pumped hydro system to deliver safe, reliable energy storage at higher efficiency and lower costs than competing technologies. “In order to maintain stability and avoid blackouts and damage to major infrastructure, you need the ability to absorb or create electricity instantaneously,” Kaufmann told the Duke student newspaper, The Chronicle, after winning the award.  “[Our idea] is a very simple and proven way to do that.”

Kaufmann said the team will use the prize money to prove that its technology works, file patents and build as much value in the company as possible before seeking outside funding.  Energy storage is a $1.5 billion annual market.

Kaufmann is pursuing concurrent  Master of Environmental Management (MEM) and Master of Business Administration (MBA) 91s at the Nicholas School and Fuqua School of Business.

Fadrhonc  also is pursuing concurrent MEM and MBA 91s.

Hyde is pursuing concurrent MEM and Master of Engineering Management 91s from the Nicholas School and Pratt School of Engineering.

The Duke Startup Challenge runs the course of the academic year, from November to April.  It includes an “Elevator Pitch Competition” in November, a full business plan submission in February, and a live finals event in April, with multiple teams winning cash and prizes throughout the competition for the best submissions.  The panels of judges, which includes successful entrepreneurs and  venture capitalists, selects the final winner based on a variety of criteria, including whether they would invest in the students’ startup or not.

For more information about the challenge,  go to .