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Investing in Energy for the Future

From the 2007 Research Review.

NREL innovations along the pathway to commercialization are gaining momentum—expanding R&D partnerships with industry, from start-up companies and entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 companies.

As investments in clean energy continue to grow at record-breaking numbers, efforts to move NREL innovations along the pathway to commercialization are gaining momentum. These efforts are encouraging and expanding R&D partnerships with industry—from start-up companies and entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 companies—and will continue along that path in the future.

Through the DOE Technology Commercialization Deployment Fund (TCDF), NREL received $4 million in fiscal year 2008 to facilitate collaborative projects between researchers and industry to develop commercial products based on NREL innovations. Commercial partners share 50% or more of the project development costs, which will typically range from $150,000 to $1 million.

TCDF projects are selected based on their fit with the program, the value of NREL's intellectual property, and the potential for near-term commercial impacts. Project proposals can be submitted by either NREL researchers or our industrial partners, and once funded, the projects can move ahead quickly. NREL's first TCDF project moved from first contact with the start-up company to a funded project in only 17 days.

"The TCDF Program gives us some wonderful tools to address the commercialization 'valley of death' that exists between technologies at the laboratory and products in the private sector," says Tom Williams, NREL technology transfer director.

To further address the commercialization "valley of death," NREL has two other new programs that leverage the business creation skills of the private sector. The first is the DOE Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program, which involves placing an entrepreneur at the lab to identify opportunities for spin-off companies based on NREL-developed technologies. In February 2008, DOE selected the venture capitalist firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which will identify and sponsor an entrepreneur to work at NREL. The program is also being piloted at DOE's Oak Ridge and Sandia national laboratories.

The second program is the Commercialization Mentor Program, which offers seasoned business professionals an opportunity to provide a short-term contribution to NREL's commercialization efforts. These commercialization mentors, who are NREL employees during their time at the laboratory, are working alongside the lab's technology transfer staff as they evaluate new innovations for commercialization opportunities, allowing the mentors to share their commerical experience with NREL staff.

NREL also provides encouragement to clean energy entrepreneurs from outside the lab, who will receive feedback on their business plans from investors and energy experts at NREL's 21st Industry Growth Forum on October 28-30, 2008, in Denver, Colorado. NREL's Industry Growth Forum is considered the premier forum on clean energy investment. Companies participating in five of the most recent forums have collectively raised more than $1.2 billion to start up their businesses. Demonstrating industry's support of clean energy innovations, more than 430 participants attended the 20th Forum.

"When people look back at the 21st Century's greatest inventions, renewable energy technologies will be on that list," said John Denniston, a partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, at NREL's 20th Industry Growth Forum.

After an NREL-developed technology is licensed, the work doesn't necessarily stop there. NREL researchers often continue to work with industry partners on ways to improve the technologies, such as increasing their performance and lowering manufacturing costs. This starts the innovation process all over again, making it another beginning, not an end.