NREL's Industry Growth Forum Attracts Clean Energy Investors 25th Forum to Feature 30 Clean Energy Companies

News release:

NREL's Industry Growth Forum Attracts Clean Energy Investors

25th Forum to Feature 30 Clean Energy Companies

Monday, September 17, 2012

Thirty clean energy companies will present their business cases to a panel of investors and industry experts in Denver Oct. 23-24 as the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) hosts the 25th NREL Industry Growth Forum.

The 30 companies were selected through an application and review process and will compete for the 2012 NREL Clean Energy Venture Awards. NREL's Industry Growth Forum is one of the nation's premier clean energy investment forums. NREL's unique approach and interactive format make the forum a must-attend event for the clean energy business and investment community. Since 2003, presenting companies have raised more than $4 billion in investment.

 

In addition to the business case presentations, NREL's two-day forum will highlight clean energy technology and business developments with a comprehensive agenda of speakers and panels that will address the most important topics in the industry today.

 

"It's critical for us to create opportunities that connect the key players in the clean energy startup community"said Richard Adams, director of NREL's Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, which organizes the forum. "We are bringing entrepreneurs directly together with financiers, policymakers and technology experts. By doing this we are laying the foundation for future conversations, partnerships and eventual business decisions that will strengthen the industry as a whole."

 

For more information, including the agenda, list of companies, list of sponsors and registration information see the 25th NREL Industry Growth Forum website at http://www.industrygrowthforum.org.

           

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by The Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

 

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From the National Renewable Energy Laboratory

NREL Thinks Big at Wind Technology Center

Credit: Dennis Schroeder

Further technology improvements will be critical to the future of wind energy. Research at NREL is leading the way. Full story

News release from Burns & McDonnell:

Burns & McDonnell dedicates new Smart Grid Laboratory

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 27, 2012

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Burns & McDonnell has significantly expanded and upgraded its Smart Grid Laboratory as a result of a move into a new larger testing and development facility equipped with more than $1 million in state-of-the-art diagnostics and testing equipment. The new facility was formally dedicated during a Jan. 27 open house for employee-owners and clients. The new testing facility is now open and available for the exclusive use of Burns & McDonnell clients.

Located in a 600-square-foot space within the Burns & McDonnell World Headquarters, the lab incorporates the technologies clients are using to modernize the power grid. These include:

• IEC 61850 - GOOSE, MMS, and Sampled Values messaging for both control and process bus implementations
• DNP 3.0
• Protective relaying over packet networks
• Network technologies including SONET, Ethernet, IP, and MPLS
• Fiber and wireless communications technologies
• Substation automation logic controllers
• SCADA Remote Terminals
• Data Concentrators
• Fault Recorders
• Metering equipment measuring power quality and harmonics
• GPS and IEEE 1588 time synchronization.

The laboratory is intended to demonstrate how advanced information technologies can be integrated with power delivery equipment as the industry moves toward highly automated, "self-healing" distribution systems. The lab allows Burns & McDonnell engineers to work with clients to configure and test solutions during design and installation, therefore improving project success and speed of deployment.

The Burns & McDonnell Smart Grid Laboratory was first built in 2007 as testing facility for select clients who were interested in demonstrating interoperability of software, two-way communications equipment and other automation equipment in preparation for deployments of Smart Grid projects. In addition to the latest technologies and devices, the lab is capable of simulating two complete substations and varying power conditions. It has the equipment many utilities have been deploying, enabling testing of interoperability between multiple vendors and vintages of equipment.

Equipment and systems in the lab can test advanced substation and distribution feeder automation using IEC 61850 and DNP 3.0 testing applications between multiple vendors and relay types. It can also stage demonstrations of high speed tripping using GOOSE messaging, HMI interoperability, substation visualization and automation systems. Communications with deployment of Ethernet, IP, and MPLS technology can focus on a converged networking platform for security, automation and protection.

Another issue facing Smart Grid deployment is interoperability of legacy and advanced equipment. By demonstrating how legacy and advanced equipment can be integrated together in a unified design, investments in IED relaying incorporating the latest technologies can be justified. The lab has successfully demonstrated solutions such as tying IEC-61850 to the power line carrier and integrating advanced protection and control systems with legacy equipment using RS-232 and DNP interfaces.

Additionally, security tests can be implemented through firewalls and gateway devices with card access and physical security sharing a converged network. These tests have been helpful in showing how to integrate security into substation design.

Energy Innovation Hubs

News release from the U.S. Dept. of Energy:

Energy Department to Launch New Energy Innovation Hub Focused on Advanced Batteries and Energy Storage

February 7, 2012 

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced today plans to launch a new Energy Innovation Hub for advanced research on batteries and energy storage with an investment of up to $120 million over five years. The hub, which will be funded at up to $20 million in fiscal year 2012, will focus on accelerating research and development of electrochemical energy storage for transportation and the electric grid.  The interdisciplinary research and development through the new Energy Innovation Hub will help advance cutting-edge energy storage and battery technologies that can be used to improve the reliability and the efficiency of the electrical grid, to better integrate clean, renewable energy technologies as part of the electrical system, and for use in electric and hybrid vehicles that will reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.

“As part of the Obama Administration’s investments in science and innovation, this Energy Innovation Hub will bring together scientists, engineers, and industry to develop fresh concepts and new approaches that will ensure America is at the leading-edge of the growing global market for battery technology,” said Secretary Chu.  “With the advances from this research and development effort, we will be able to design and produce batteries here in America that last longer, go farther, and cost less than today’s technologies.”

Energy Innovation Hubs are designed to bring together teams of scientists and engineers across intellectual disciplines to rapidly accelerate scientific discoveries and shorten the path from laboratory innovation to technological development and commercial deployment of critical energy technologies. The hubs are part of the Obama Administration’s broad-based clean energy research strategy aimed at harnessing American innovation to achieve needed breakthroughs in important energy technologies to grow the clean energy economy and generate new clean energy jobs.

The goal of the Batteries and Energy Storage Hub will be to deliver research leading to revolutionary new technologies.  While advancing the current understanding and underlying science around energy storage, the role of the new hub will be to develop radically new scientific approaches, including the exploration of new materials, devices, systems and novel approaches for transportation and utility-scale storage. The hub should foster new energy storage designs and develop working, scalable prototype devices that demonstrate radically new approaches for electrochemical storage, overcoming current manufacturing limitations through innovation to reduce complexity and cost. The ultimate goal will be to surpass the current technical limits for electrochemical energy storage and reduce the risk level enough for industry to further develop the innovations discovered by the hub and deploy these new technologies into the marketplace.

Letters of Intent to apply are due on March 1, 2012 with full applications due on May 31, 2012.

Universities, national laboratories, nonprofit organizations, and private firms are eligible to compete and are encouraged to form partnerships when submitting their proposals.  The award selection is expected this summer.  The full Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is available HERE.

This will be the fourth such hub established by the Department since 2010.  Other hubs include the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, which focuses on advanced research to develop fuels directly from sunlight; the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors, which is seeking to improve nuclear reactors through sophisticated computer-based modeling and simulation; and the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster for Energy-Efficient Buildings, which is working to achieve major breakthroughs in energy efficient building design.  Information on the existing hubs can be found on the Energy Innovation Hubs website: http://energy.gov/hubs.

America's Next Top Energy Innovator, Round 2

News release from the U.S. Department of Energy:

Secretary Chu Announces Second Round of “America’s Next Top Energy Innovator” on One Year Anniversary of the White House Startup America Initiative

January 31, 2012 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, on the one year anniversary of the Obama Administration’s Startup America Initiative, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that the Department of Energy (DOE) is kicking off a second year of “America’s Next Top Energy Innovator,” a program that allows startup companies to license groundbreaking technologies developed by DOE’s 17 national laboratories for $1,000 and build successful businesses. As part of this effort, the Department reduces both the cost and paperwork requirements for startup companies to obtain an option agreement to license some of the 15,000 patents and patent applications held by the national laboratories.

The White House Startup America Initiative is a multiagency effort across the Obama Administration to promote high-growth entrepreneurship by expanding access to capital, cutting red tape, and accelerating innovation through agency action.  Additional information on the program’s one year anniversary and new steps the Obama Administration is taking to support job-creating small businesses is available HERE.

“America's future competitiveness depends on our ability to innovate and advance American products and businesses,” said Energy Secretary Chu. “Through America’s Next Top Energy Innovator, we are allowing brilliant ideas to fully develop and giving startup companies the opportunity to bring inventions from our national laboratories to the market.”

Under the previous round of America’s Next Top Energy Innovator, thirty-six companies in total signed option agreements with the national laboratories.  An online contest for the top picks is currently underway, where Americans can vote online for the most innovative and promising technologies supported by the program by visiting www.energy.gov/topinnovator. The top startup companies– based on the public vote and an expert review – will be invited to be featured at the premier annual gathering of clean energy investors and innovators around the country, the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit at the end of February.

Under the next round of the “America’s Next Top Energy Innovator” program:

1.      Wednesday, February 1, 2011, the Department will kick off the second round of the competition.  Entrepreneurs and start-ups must identify the technology of interest and submit a business plan to be considered for the program. Participants will have until December 10, 2012 to make their submission to the laboratory.
2.      Any of the 15,000 unlicensed patents and patent applications held by the national laboratories will be available for licensing by startup companies.
3.      From February 1 to December 10, the Department will reduce the total upfront cost of licensing DOE patents in a specific technology to a $1,000 upfront fee for portfolios of up to three patents from a single laboratory. This represents a savings of $10,000 to $50,000 on average in upfront fees.
4.      Other license terms, such as equity and royalties, will be negotiated on a case by case basis and will typically be due once the company grows and achieves commercial sales. These fees help support the Department's continuing research activities to develop new technologies.
5.      The Department has simplified the option and licensing process and has established a standard set of terms for start-ups, who generally lack the resources, time or expertise to negotiate individual licensing agreements.
6.      In early 2013, the Department will give Americans the chance to vote online for the most innovative and promising technologies supported by the program.

Learn more about DOE’s America’s Next Top Energy Innovator program HERE. Learn more about the Obama Administration’s Startup America initiative HERE.

From the U.S. Dept. of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL):

Lease Option Increases Rooftop Solar’s Appeal, Study Says Low Down Payment, Immediate Savings, Lure a New, Less Affluent Demographic Friday, January 20, 2012 Rooftop solar panels are attracting a new demographic of customers who are choosing to lease rather than buy, and enjoying the low upfront costs and immediate savings. The new third-party-lease business model lets homeowners save money the very first month, rather than breaking even a decade later after an initial investment of $10,000 or $20,000. Analysts with the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that the solar lease models are surging in southern California. And they're being adopted in less affluent neighborhoods that had few customer-owned systems. The NREL study, "The Transformation of Southern California's Residential Photovoltaics Market through Third-Party Ownership," is in the current edition of the journal Energy Policy. The study indicated an attraction for third-party leasing in neighborhoods with less affluence than those most likely to go for the customer-owned option. It found a positive correlation between customers outright buying solar energy systems and customers living in neighborhoods where the average household income was $150,000 or more. But with third-party-leased photovoltaic (PV) panels, that positive correlation appeared in neighborhoods where the average household income was just $100,000 or more. If what's true in southern California proves true for the nation, it means that rooftop solar power could prove tempting for an additional 13 million Americans who live in households that earn between $100,000 and $150,000 per year. "What is so interesting about the southern California data is that the strong decrease in PV prices – from lower retail costs and stronger federal incentives – didn't pick up a new demographic. But the new business model – leasing – did pick up a new customer demographic," NREL's Easan Drury, the lead author of the report, said. Repackaging the value of photovoltaics as a simple savings on the monthly bill is an attractive alternative to the pitch that it will pay for itself in a decade, he said. "If someone comes up to you and says you can make money next month and forever, that totally changes how people see the value of solar." Among Drury's other findings: Third-party leasing usually eliminates the need for home-equity-style financing and, thus, the need for significant equity in the home. Without the hurdle of financing, more people can adopt solar, Drury said.  Along with the lower income threshold, Drury found a surge in solar leasing in neighborhoods with younger families. In the Los Angeles and Orange county markets, customer-owned PV was five times more prevalent than third-party owned in 2009. In 2010, the ratio had dropped to 2 to 1. And for the first quarter of 2011, the ratio was almost even. Homeowners can put as little as $3,000 down and see an immediate drop in their electricity costs,  albeit that first year the drop may be just a couple dollars a month. The real benefits come over the next two decades, when the $40 or $50 per month they're paying to lease the solar panels stays constant, while, presumably, the cost of electricity goes up. Third-party companies are touting potential customer savings of $10,000 to $15,000 over two decades. NREL is the Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by The Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC. ###