Two NM startups selected for DOE lab assistance
Pilot program helps small firms advance clean-energy tech
The U.S. Department of Energy is opening the doors at two national laboratories to help a pair of local startups develop new clean energy technologies.
Los Alamos National Laboratory will assist Albuquerque-based Pajarito Powder to improve the performance of alternative catalyst materials that it’s developing for hydrogen fuel cells. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado will also help Los Alamos-based Ubiquitous Quantum Dots, or UbiQD LLC, to do cost modeling and analysis of nanotechnology the company believes can be used to harness solar energy from windows to power buildings.
Both startups are among 43 U.S. companies selected by the DOE to receive up to $300,000 each in technical assistance and access to cutting edge equipment at laboratories around the country. It’s part of a $20 million Small Business Vouchers pilot program the DOE launched last year to help businesses develop or improve clean energy technology.
The DOE awarded $6.7 million for 33 companies in a first round of funding last March. That round included assistance by Sandia National Laboratories for iBeam Materials, a Santa Fe-based company developing a new manufacturing process that could allow it to mass produce LED lighting on metallic sheets to lower production costs.
The new round of funding will provide $8 million in assistance for access to resources and scientists at 12 national laboratories, including Sandia and LANL. Assistance is offered to small businesses working in nine different areas, including solar, geothermal, wind, water, fuel cells, advanced manufacturing, bioenergy, buildings and vehicles, said David Friedman, DOE acting assistant secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
“We want new, innovative ways to move clean energy into the marketplace as fast as possible,” Friedman told reporters in a conference call Thursday. “We want to increase and enhance relations between the private sector and researchers and streamline access to laboratory resources.”
Pajarito Powder hopes LANL assistance can help enhance the performance of its iron-nitrogen carbon catalyst, which the company is now marketing to industries developing hydrogen fuel-cell technology. Pajarito’s catalyst is much less expensive than the precious-metal catalysts used today.
The company has licensed alternative catalyst materials from the University of New Mexico, LANL, and other places. “With LANL’s help, we want to develop the next generation of materials,” said President and Chief Technology Officer Barr Halevi.
UbiQD hopes NREL will help with detailed imaging of its nanoscale quantum dots, which it wants to use in window coatings to collect solar energy for solar cells, said UbiQD founder and president Hunter McDaniel. LANL could also help determine the costs for integrating UbiQD technology into buildings.
“That could help us choose the best regions or cities to deploy the technology first,” McDaniel said.