Washington Wants Your Help on Clean Energy Development

Whether you agree or disagree with Washington’s approach to trying to rejuvenate the economy (referring to Recovery Act, stimulus and the like), one thing is clear. When the government is making money available, businesses would be foolish to at least not take a look to see if they could benefit.

The latest entry in that category comes from the Department of Energy (DOE), which last week announced $30 million in funding to help commercialize clean energy technologies. These are really first-time Phase III grants under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. If you’ve worked with the government funds before on clean energy projects, here’s the chance to do more — up to $3 million over three years.

The deadline for submission of applications is August 4. Learn more at the DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy site. Here are the specific areas where the agency wants to invest:

Biomass Technologies

  • Harvesting/Dewatering Technology for Algal Biofuels Production.

Buildings Technologies

  • Transitional Technology for Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs)
  • SSL Products made from Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs)
  • "Core" Technology for Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) 

Fuel Cell Technologies

  • Advanced Materials for Fuel Cell Technologies
  • Bio-Fueled Solid Oxide Fuel Cells
     

Geothermal Technologies –  High Temperature Tools and Sensors 

  • High Temperature Downhole Tools 
  • High-Temperature-High-Volume Lifting  
  • High Temperature Downhole MWD Tools for Directional Drilling
     

Industrial Technologies

  • Sensors and Controls  
  • Industrial Membrane Process Systems   
  • Advanced Materials 
  • Integrated Reaction-Separation using non-thermal processes
  • Mitigation of Heat Losses, Fouling, and Scaling in key Manufacturing Unit Operations. 
     

Solar Technologies – Lowering the Cost of Photovoltaics through Innovative Augmentation

  • Lightweight, Flexible and Low Cost Multi-junction Solar Cells
  • Static Module PV Concentrators
  • New Methods of Crystallizing Silicon

Vehicle Technologies

  • Technologies to Address Internal Heating in DC Bus Capacitors
  • Improved Magnetic Materials for Motors
  • Advanced Materials for Lightweight Vehicles
     

Wind Technologies

  • Advanced Wind Power Technologies and Systems  
     

Fossil Energy

  • Pollution control
  • Advanced power systems
  • Stationary power fuel cells
  • Clean fuels
  • Carbon sequestration
  • Recovery of oil, natural gas, and methane hydrates
  • Advances in materials, sensors, monitors, controls, biotechnology, and computational processes
     

Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability

  • Smart Grid Technologies and Systems
  • Electric Transmission Technologies
  • Superconducting Technology for Power Equipment 
  • Advanced Materials for Power Electronics and Energy Storage
     

Nuclear Energy

  • Advanced Instrumentation and Control, Radiation Resistant Sensors, and Wireless On-Line Monitoring Systems for Nuclear Power Plant Applications