It’s said that still water runs deep. But when it comes to marine and hydrokinetic technology development, the Department of Energy (DOE) offers deep capabilities and wide possibilities.

That’s what Jetta Wong, Director of DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) talked about with some 75 executive members from DOE, the national laboratories and the energy industry who had gathered for the Executive Summit on Marine and Hydrokinetic (MHK) Research and Development.  

The summit was presented by DOE’s Energy Wind and Water Power Technologies Office, and the attendees had gathered to learn about the possibilities arising from DOE’s MHK investments in the national laboratories and to identify activities that are ripe for technology transition.

There are a lot of opportunities. And they’re growing. As Jetta noted, in FY14, there were 14 different hydropower partnership agreements with the labs, including one at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), three at Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) and ten with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), all three of which were represented at the summit. Those agreements represented private sector investments of nearly $1 million, and were supported by additional DOE funds.

The number of those agreements, and the value of their investments, are likely to rise in the future. One reason is the incredible capabilities of the national labs, both in terms of state-of-the art facilities and in terms of on-site expertise, which are available to advance business and technology development.

NREL, for instance, has a world-renowned center that includes unique and highly versatile facilities and capabilities for the controlled mechanical, electrical and component testing of MHK devices. Sandia’s capabilities include the Sediment Erosion Actuated by Wave Oscillations and Linear Flow (SEAWOLF) flume, a mobile test facility that directly measures and quantifies sediment erosion properties in wave-dominated costal environments to minimize risk to marine renewable energy offshore infrastructure. And PNNL has a Marine Sciences Lab, which has research capabilities in marine energy resource characterization, environmental chemistry, integrated coastal ocean modeling, wetland and coastal ecology, ecosystem modeling, biotechnology, remote sensing and national and homeland security.

Those incredible capabilities represent only a small part of what is available at the labs … and what is possible in DOE-supported technology transition. In FY14, there were nearly 2,800 non-federal agreements with the national labs, representing some $339 million in partner funds. Every state had at least one entity that was partnered with a DOE lab in FY14, and 44 of the 50 states have universities within the state that have some form of partnership agreement with a national lab such as an ACT (Agreement to Commercialize Technology), a CRADA (Cooperative Research and Development Agreement) and an SPP (Strategic Partnership Project).

There are also a variety of other opportunities for businesses to engage with the labs, such as through the Small Business Vouchers Pilot and the Technology Commercialization Fund.

DOE is already one of the largest supporters of technology transfer in the federal government, and new possibilities are opening on land and at sea. So check out what’s available – there’s a blue ocean of opportunity waiting.

 

The mission of the Office of Technology Transitions is to expand the commercial impact of DOE’s portfolio of research, development, demonstration and deployment activities over the short, medium and long term.

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