- $63M for Clean Energy Commercialization
- $20M for Geothermal Technologies
- Grants: Renewable Energy Feasibility Studies for Rural Businesses
- Automotive X Prize Winners Announced
- Leading State Energy Efficiency Programs Announced
- Clean Energy Investments Help Meet Poverty Reduction Goals
DOE Awards $63 Million to Advance Clean Energy Commercialization
On September 15, DOE announced it would award $63 million to support commercialization of clean energy technologies, including $57 million for small businesses and $5.3 million for universities.
The awards to small businesses include nearly $11 million from the Recovery Act. They will help 33 small businesses across the country develop manufacturing processes to scale up production of their technologies. Those technologies include 21 renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies, as well as six new technologies for power grids, three for next-generation nuclear power, and three for cleaner fossil energy. The awards are the first under DOE's Small Business Phase III Xlerator program, which builds on the successes of DOE's Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs.
21 commercialization projects will receive nearly $38 million of the total $57 million for small businesses. They include:
- algae-based biodiesel;
- four fuel-cell technologies, including two designed for biomass fuels;
- high-temperature electrical insulation for geothermal energy applications;
- three solar cell technologies;
- four wind technologies.
- An efficient lighting product that uses organic LEDs;
- innovative capacitors, permanent magnets, and lightweight materials for advanced vehicles;
- four industrial technologies, including a low-cost microchannel heat exchanger, advanced laser-based sensors, a more energy-efficient way to make styrene, and a process that will allow ethanol producers to reduce their use of energy-intensive distillation.
See the DOE press release and a detailed description of the selected projects.
DOE also announced its first-ever funding for universities and nonprofits to build and strengthen "innovation ecosystems" to accelerate movement of cutting-edge energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies from university labs to the market.
The projects will receive a total of $5.3 million in federal funds over three years, which will be leveraged with grantee investments to support $9 million in total projects. See the DOE press release.
University of Central Florida, for example, will hold a "MegaWatt Ventures" event, which combines a technical showcase with a business plan competition and prototyping services. Teams will tap into intellectual property portfolios and research expertise held by Florida universities. Each year, 10 teams will be awarded $10,000 each and have six months to complete a prototype and assemble a start-up team. The 10 teams will then compete for a $100,000 prize, as an incentive to commercialize university-developed technologies. In its third year, MegaWatt Ventures will be expanded to include all universities in the southeastern U.S.
Similar techniques will be deployed in other regions of the country:
- Clean Energy Trust of Chicago, Illinois, for Illinois scientists and entrepreneurs,
- Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems of Cambridge, Massachusetts, for university-originated technologies across New England;
- University of California, San Diego will hold an annual Regional Energy Innovation Challenge;
University of Utah will create the Energy Innovation Commercialization Center for participating western universities and research institutions.
