The Energy Department has awarded $20 million in total to five of its national laboratories to lead a pilot program that intends to help small businesses commercialize their clean energy platforms.The national labs will aid at least 100 small firms to test and bring to market their products through the provision of vouchers under the Small Business Vouchers Pilot program, David Danielson, assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy at DOE, said in an announcement published Wednesday.
The program is part of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Lab Impact Initiative.
The recipients are:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ($4.2 million)
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory ($4.9 million)
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory ($5.6 million)
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory ($2.7 million)
- Sandia National Laboratories ($2.8 million)
The labs will coordinate merit reviews, launch outreach efforts and concentrate on clean energy projects that deal with topics of interest, including bioenergy, solar, wind, fuel cells, water, geothermal and advanced manufacturing, Danielson noted.
DOE will also introduce an online tool, dubbed the Small Business Central Assistance Platform, by late summer to process applications submitted by the companies and facilitate communication between the firms and national labs.
