The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has selected 33 small businesses, including 4 businesses working on buildings related issues, to work directly with DOE national labs to accelerate the transformation toward a clean energy economy. The selected businesses will be afforded access to world-class laboratory resources to help move these innovative technologies into the market faster.

These partnerships are part of the Small Business Vouchers Pilot, a new initiative under which DOE will commit up to $20 million in technical and research assistance awards to help small businesses—those with fewer than 500 employees—based in the U.S. gain access to state-of-the-art facilities and experts, and receive customized assistance in their specific technology area. Work in the Buildings area will focus on improving the efficiency and cost effectiveness of building energy systems, including HVAC systems. The 4 buildings-focused businesses selected in Round 1 include:

• Be Power Tech, Inc. (BPT), Fort Lauderdale, Florida: Be Power Tech will test and obtain operational performance measurements, allowing BPT to compare various system configurations, characterize system performance across weather and load conditions, and observe system reactions to transient conditions that approximate real-world use cases. Working with Oak Ridge National Laboratory
   
• KCF Technologies, State College, Pennsylvania: KCF will demonstrate its cost effective, wireless sensor for measuring pump efficiency. Doing so will expand KCF’s suite of predictive maintenance tools to target a potentially rich market and broaden its business sector. Working with Oak Ridge National Laboratory
   
• Lucid Design Group, Oakland, California Lucid design will combine its aggregate data and statistical tools with the lab’s/DOE’s reference data sets and physics modeling tools to create more actionable feedback for buildings and users in a way that is currently not possible without heavy investment in hardware and services. Working with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
   
• NorthWrite, Inc., Tualatin, Oregon: NorthWrite will implement and demonstrate advanced automated performance monitoring and diagnostic algorithms for equipment and systems of small and medium commercial buildings in a scalable, cloud-based software architecture, validated using experimental data and field tested on multiple real world buildings. Working with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Apply for Round 2 Funding

Building on the tremendous response of Round 1, the department also announced it will start accepting applications for Round 2 of the SBV pilot. A total of $13 million worth of funding remains across EERE; over the course of the year, up to 100 vouchers will be awarded. The deadline for Round 2 is April 10, 2016.