DOE awards over $65M to commercialize promising energy technologies

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced over $30 million in federal funding, matched by over $35 million in private sector funds, for 68 projects that will accelerate the commercialization of promising energy technologies. The awards are expected to help transfer solutions from the National Labs to the marketplace and work toward the president’s goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The awards are being facilitated by the DOE Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF). To receive a TCF award, National Lab teams must receive a commitment from private sector partners to match at least 50 percent of the anticipated federal funding. This year’s selected TCF projects come from 12 DOE National Labs, supported by partners in 25 states and four countries, including the following SSTI members:

• Argonne National Laboratory—$4,150,000 in federal funds, cost-shared by partners in Wisconsin, California, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana. Projects include processing materials for energy storage, highly-efficient processes to convert carbon dioxide to chemicals, advanced materials processing to produce fast reactor fuel alloys, and industrial simulation improvements.
• Los Alamos National Laboratory—$4,724,659 in federal funds, cost-shared by partners in California, Maryland, and Massachusetts. Projects include the remote monitoring of power transmission lines, an innovative manufacturing technology for carbon-carbon composites, an innovative approach to renewable hydrogen production, and machine learning of natural and engineered geoscience processes.
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory—$5,126,689 in federal funds, cost-shared by partners in Tennessee, New York, Minnesota, and North Carolina. Projects include converters for extreme fast charging, artificial intelligence for characterizing additive manufacturing and others.
• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory—$4,819,579 in federal funds, cost-shared by partners in Texas, Quebec, New York, Illinois, Oklahoma, Ontario, Washington, Louisiana, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and California. Projects include self-healing cements for subsurface application, cybersecurity applications for control rooms, and optimization of hydropower and marine hydrokinetic facilities.
• Sandia National Laboratories—$2,092,523 in federal funds, cost-shared by partners in Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Cleveland (UK), and New Mexico. Projects include alkaline water electrolysis, improved power converters for micro grids, and robotics for the optimization of wind energy generation.