DOE Awards $54 Million to 235 American Small Businesses Developing Novel Clean Energy And Climate Solutions
June 10, 2021 -- The U.S. Department of Energy this week announced 235 small businesses, across 42 states, will receive $54 million in critical seed funding for 266 projects that are developing and deploying proof-of-concept prototypes for a wide range of technological solutions needed to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. This diverse class of awardees are designing novel solutions to our greatest energy needs around advanced grid technologies, solar and hydrogen power, carbon capture and storage, artificial intelligence, electric vehicle batteries and more.
'Small businesses and entrepreneurs are the backbone of the American economy, the heart of our communities, and a well of ingenuity, driving America's leadership in energy efficiency, sustainable transportation and renewable power, said Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. 'With this round of federal funding, we're going one step further to tap this homegrown resource to help bring the next generation of clean energy innovation to market while creating good-paying jobs across the private sector.'
DOE's SBIR/STTR programs seek to foster and encourage participation in innovation and entrepreneurship by women and socially or economically disadvantaged persons, and to increase the private-sector commercialization of innovations derived from federal R&D funding. SBIR/STRR programs support DOE's larger effort to ensure underserved and overburdened communities and advance the Biden-Harris administration's Justice40 Initiative - a commitment to deliver 40% of the overall benefits of clean energy technology investments to this demographic.
The awards are administered through DOE's Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) programs and include:
- 29 women-owned businesses
- 31 business owners who self-identified as socially disadvantaged or low income
- 37 states identified as HUBZones, a Small Business Administration program that fuels small business growth in historically underutilized business zones
Selected projects include:
- Workforce development and experiential bioenergy learning tools: Pathways United in St. Louis, MO is developing an experiential learning tool to build workforce capacity in underrepresented populations in the field of bioenergy. (Award amount $199,998.00)
- Grid-smart building controls: Small and mid-sized commercial building owners often do not have the resources needed to meet ambitious energy efficiency goals. Community Energy Labs LLC, in Portland, OR is developing a scalable, autonomous clean building control platform that allows small to mid-sized commercial building owners to simply and affordably meet their goals. Award amount: $206,230.00)
- Solving laser distortions: Voss Scientific, LLC, in Albuquerque, NM is setting out to make high average-power laser amplifiers smaller, cheaper and more simplified by adding an optical window treated with a metasurface to solve thermal stress. (Award amount: $206,500.00)
'Small businesses are the lifeblood of Oregon's economy, supporting jobs in our communities and tackling the big challenges faced by our nation. As the climate emergency persists, I'm happy to see the Department of Energy investing in small businesses that will help kick America's carbon habit and move us toward a clean energy future,' said U.S. Senator Ron Wyden.
'Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy and the bedrock of our communities. With this funding, Utah's small businesses will help pave the way in developing the technology necessary for our country to adequately address the array of energy challenges we face,' said U.S. Senator Mitt Romney.
Earlier this year, DOE announced an additional 102 small business that received over $100 million in funding to pursue, among other things advanced manufacturing of wind turbines and batteries, new instruments for atmospheric measurement, and particle accelerator technologies that can power next-generation scientific discoveries.
As part of the recent announcement DOE released an Inclusive Innovation Request for Information (RFI) to understand the current barriers and actions needed to make its funding opportunities and innovation and entrepreneurship activities more inclusive, just, and equitable, in line with the Administration's climate and Justice40 goals. This RFI is intended to inform DOE on enabling an inclusive and just entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem for climate and energy technology research.
For more information about the 266 projects announced this week, click here.
More information on the Inclusive Innovation RFI is available here.
Visit DOE's SBIR and STTR programs website for more information.
Source: U.S. Department of Energy
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Upcoming Events of Interest from SGO:
14th Microgrid Global Innovation Forum, September 7-9, 2021, London
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3rd Utility Cyber Security Forum, October 6-7, 2021, Chicago
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8th Annual Demand Response & Distributed Energy Resources World Forum, October 12-14, 2021 in Los Angeles
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