Startups Tap Government Energy Research

Startups were able to tap into research from federal labs to create products with energy-saving potential.

Image: Department of Energy

The Department of Energy selected three startups as winners of its America’s Next Energy Innovator award.

As part of the Obama administration’s Startup America initiative, the department made it easier and less costly for startups to license technology from its national labs. This prompted 36 startups to sign option agreements with these labs. The winners of the America’s Next Energy Innovator awards were chosen from among these startups, based on online votes from the general public and a separate review by an expert panel.

Besides the prestige of winning this award, the winners also will get a chance to show off their technologies to potential investors at the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit near Washington, D.C., at the end of this month.

And the winners are:

• Iowa Powder Atomization Technologies Inc., a Nevada, Iowa, startup that’s using gas atomization technology developed at Ames Laboratory to make titanium powder with processes that are 10 times more efficient than conventional powder-making methods. This lowers the costs for manufacturers. Titanium powder can be used in medical implants, heart valves, aerospace screws, and armored vehicles.
• Umpqua Energy, a Medford, Oregon-based business using technology developed by the Argonne National Laboratory to enable gasoline engines to run in an extreme lean-burn mode and thereby get more miles to the gallon.
• Vorbeck Materials, a Jessup, Maryland-based company using a method developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for building small chemical structures to dramatically improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries. This could extend the range for electric cars to 400 miles and allow smartphones to be fully charged in 10 minutes, according to the company.

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said allowing startups to license technology cheaply will help move research conducted at the agency’s labs to factory floors in the U.S. Too much technology invented in America has gone overseas for production, he said.

“We need to fight to keep it here,” Chu said.