DOE Releases $60 Million More for Small Businesses In Clean Energy Innovation Projects

At a White House Energy Innovation meeting, Under Secretary of Energy Kristina Johnson announced that $60 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is available to continue supporting innovative small business research and development leading to deployment of clean energy technologies.  This is a Phase II funding opportunity under the Department’s Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) program for companies that have already demonstrated successful results with new technologies and can now show potential to meet market needs.

“The Department of Energy is committed to unlocking small business innovation in the clean energy economy,” said Under Secretary Johnson. “This second funding opportunity will help innovative small businesses, create jobs and move our country forward.”

In Phase I, 125 grants of up to $150,000 each were awarded to 107 small advanced technology firms across the U.S.  The 125 Phase I awardees were competitively selected from a pool of 950 applicants through a special fast-track process with an emphasis on near-term commercialization and job creation. Phase II funding is only available to companies selected in Phase I.

Additional information on the SBIR program and today’s funding announcement is available from the SBIR/STTR Programs Office.

www.energy.gov

$90M Clean Energy Program Announced For California

California Energy Commission announced the $90 million Clean Energy Manufacturing Program that will strengthen California’s leadership in clean energy by providing financing to manufacturers.

The Clean Energy Manufacturing Program will combine two programs that offer California-based clean energy businesses a combination of financing options including grants, loans, loan guarantees, tax-exempt financing, production incentives, sales tax incentives and credit enhancements.

The Clean Energy Business Financing Program uses the remaining American Recovery and Reinvestment Act State Energy Program funds to provide $30.6 million in low-interest loans to private businesses that improve or expand their energy efficiency or renewable energy manufacturing facilities in California. The Energy Commission received $226 million under the State Energy Program to implement public and private sector programs.

The second program, the Energy Commission’s existing Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program, offers $59.5 million in state funding to companies developing alternative and renewable fuels and advanced transportation technologies.

The Clean Energy Manufacturing Program leverages public and private funds and provides opportunities to help business and industry to embrace new technologies and innovative products that build a clean energy economy. These innovative projects will rebuild our electricity grid, sustain jobs, retrofit homes and businesses and eventually produce the future of the State’s transportation fuels and the vehicles powered by them.

The Clean Energy Business Financing Program is in the final stages of development and the Energy Commission expects low-interest loans to be available by late spring. The Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program provides funding in four areas for 2010: Biomethane Production ($21.5 million), Ethanol Production Incentives ($6 million), Vehicle and Component Manufacturing ($19 million), and Advanced Biofuel Production ($13 million). The Biomethane Production solicitation notice of award will be announced in March. The remaining three solicitations will be released in April/May 2010.

www.energy.ca.gov

Dept. Of Energy Invests $12M In Young Solar Technologies

U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that the Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will invest up to $12 million in total funding – $10 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – in four companies to support the development of early stage solar energy technologies and help them advance to full commercial scale. The goal of this effort is to help further expand a clean energy economy and make solar energy more cost-competitive with conventional forms of electricity.

Companies awarded under DOE’s Photovoltaic Incubator Program will work with NREL to transition prototype and pre-commercial PV technologies into pilot and full-scale manufacturing. The anticipated subcontracts, up to $3 million each, will be awarded as 18-month phased subcontracts with payment made upon completion of project milestones.

Through the Recovery Act, the DOE is investing more than $117 million in developing and deploying solar energy technologies.  While supporting cutting edge research and development on photovoltaics and concentrated solar power at the National Laboratories, the Department is also making significant investments in training solar systems installers, supporting the growth of grid-tied solar photovoltaic systems, and the use of solar energy in U.S. cities.

The partnership projects announced today include:

California

Alta Devices, Inc. (Santa Clara, CA) up to $3 million
Alta Devices will focus efforts on developing an innovative high-efficiency (>20%), low-cost compound-semiconductor photovoltaic module, with market entry expected in 2011.

Solar Junction Corp. (San Jose, CA) up to $3 million
Solar Junction will develop a manufacturing process to produce a very high efficiency multi-junction cell.  These high performing cells will be utilized by concentrating PV (CPV) manufacturers to produce lower cost CPV systems.

Tetra Sun (Saratoga, CA) up to $3 million
Tetra Sun will focus efforts on a back surface passivation for high efficiency crystalline silicon solar cells. This effort will result in a high efficiency low-cost C-Si solar cell.

North Carolina

Semprius, Inc. (Durham, NC) up to $3 million
Semprius will focus efforts towards a massively parallel, microcell-based CPV receiver. This approach combines the benefits of unique-to-solar manufacturing techniques with the performance and operational benefits of microcell concentrating photovoltaics.

Dept.Of Energy

Federal Funds Will Make Pennsylvania a Leader in Solar Power

$9.5 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding gives eight large-scale solar projects in Pennsylvania funding that will create jobs while generating clean energy.

This  $9.5 million investment through the federal Recovery Act is intended to help to make possible the support of eight projects that will put 149 people to work, stimulate another $46 million in private investments and, once completed, will generate enough electricity to power 1,200 homes annually.

The eight solar projects, which total more than 10 megawatts of generation capacity, will produce enough clean electricity to offset more than 8,500 tons in carbon emissions, or the equivalent of removing nearly 1,500 passenger vehicles from the road.

The projects also account for more than double the four megawatts of capacity that Pennsylvania had just one year ago.

The Green Energy Works! Solar program is one of four competitive grant opportunities that use green jobs to create green energy and to stimulate economic development. Biogas, combined heat and power and wind are the other three. All solar projects must create jobs, be able to start work within six months, and be completed within 24 months and prior to April 30, 2012.

www.recovery.pa.gov