April 28: Free DOE Webinar Focuses on Calculating Loads for Heating and Cooling

The U.S. Department of Energy's [DOE's] Building Technologies Program [BTP] is offering a webinar on Thursday, April 28, 2011, from 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon Eastern, titled "Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning [HVAC] Right-Sizing -- Part 1: Calculating Loads."

Register now to attend this free webinar: http://bit.ly/RegistrationBTP.

Calculating energy requirements for heating and cooling a home is the first critical step in the design process for correctly sizing the HVAC system. Designers use models of electrical loads to help them select the optimal equipment and duct designs to deliver the appropriate volume of conditioned air to rooms of the home.

This webinar, presented by IBACOS -- one of DOE’s Building America research teams -- will highlight the key criteria required to accurately calculate heating and cooling loads. During the webinar, experts will also discuss current industry rules of thumb, perceptions, and barriers to correctly sizing HVAC systems.

Target audiences include residential builders and HVAC design firms, contractors, installers, manufacturers, and distributors.

Learn more about the webinar: http://1.usa.gov/WebinarsEERE.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy [EERE]
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Seize These Great Last-Minute Opportunities for the 2011 Department of Energy Small Business Conference & Expo -- Before They Expire

The 12th Annual U.S. Department of Energy [DOE] Small Business Conference & Expo is less than a month away. Whether you've been a small-business owner for a decade or a day, DOE invites you to join them at the Kansas City Convention Center from May 10-12, 2011, for a conference packed with keynotes, workshops, business matchmaking, and a very busy Expo.

The conference is right around the corner, and there are great opportunities which are about to expire. Take a moment now to:

* Register for the conference. Regular registration rates will expire on May 8, 2011. Registering now will save you $50 on the registration cost.

* Purchase an Expo Visitor Pass. If you cannot attend the entire conference, an Expo Visitor Pass will allow you to target the exhibitors and sponsors with whom you want to speak.

* Reserve an exhibitor booth. Only a few exhibitor booths remain. Get yours today if you are planning to exhibit -- before they're all sold out.

* Share your voice. Submit a 30-second video clip on how small business has affected your community.

* Sign up for business matchmaking sessions as a buyer or supplier. Visit the site to check out the buyers who have signed up, and the featured buyer categories.

For more information on the 12th Annual U.S. Department of Energy Small Business Conference & Expo in Kansas City, Mo., visit http://smallbusinessconference.energy.gov; or, call 877-837-8623.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Economic Impact & Diversity
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Energy Secretary Chu Announces $112 Million in SunShot Initiative Projects to Advance Solar Photovoltaic Manufacturing Partnerships in U.S.

As part of the SunShot Initiative, U.S. Department of Energy [DOE] Secretary Steven Chu [pictured] yesterday announced the selection of up to $112.5 million in funding over five years, to support the development of advanced solar photovoltaic [PV]-related manufacturing processes throughout the United States.

DOE’s SunShot advanced manufacturing partnerships will help the solar power industry overcome technical barriers and reduce costs for PV installations, help the U.S. regain the lead in the global market for solar technologies, and provide support for clean-energy jobs for years to come.

This program is modeled, in part, on SEMATECH [Semiconductor Manufacturing TECHnology]. Faced with falling U.S. market share for the domestic semiconductor industry from 57 percent in 1982, to 38 percent in 1988, SEMATECH began working with domestic equipment suppliers to improve their capabilities.

As a result of SEMATECH’s work to solve common manufacturing problems by leveraging resources and sharing risks, within 10 years the domestic semiconductor industry had grown by 16 percent. Through this award, SEMATECH will now apply similar ingenuity to helping the U.S. recapture the lead in solar manufacturing.

"Expanding the U.S. solar energy industry is an important part of the Administration's goals to diversify our electricity supply, and rebuild America’s manufacturing base to create jobs now and in the future," said Secretary Chu. "The SunShot Initiative will not only keep the United States at the forefront in solar energy research and development, but will help us win the worldwide race to build a solar manufacturing industry that produces solar systems that are cost-competitive with fossil fuels."

Yesterday’s investments are part of DOE’s SunShot Initiative, which aims to reduce the total costs of photovoltaic solar energy systems by about 75 percent, so that they are cost-competitive at large scale with other forms of energy without subsidies by the end of the decade. Achieving this goal -- equivalent to approximately $1 a watt, or roughly 6 cents per kilowatt-hour for utility systems -- would allow solar energy systems to be broadly deployed across the country.

By engaging multiple companies across the PV supply chain, the SunShot advanced manufacturing partnerships program intends to have broad impact on the U.S. solar industry:

* Selected projects will create organizations designed to bring PV companies together in a coordinated environment to address common technology needs.

* The facilities established through these projects will provide services, tools and facilities to PV companies and suppliers -- to assist them in developing and demonstrating new technologies, and in making the transition to commercial production.

* The program will also link universities and national labs with PV cell, materials, and equipment suppliers to help speed the rate of innovation through coordinated and focused PV manufacturing development.

The selected industry-focused organizations will strongly leverage industry, state, and local funds, and are expected to achieve financial self-sufficiency after five years.

DOE Funding Fuels Coast-to-Coast Collaborations
Funding was made available for applicants in university and industry. Both topics consider collaborative research models to accelerate manufacturing-related technologies and provide maximum leverage to federal funding.

Following are the selected projects:

* Bay Area PV Consortium [Stanford, Cal.] -- $25 million for University-Focused Development
Bay Area PV Consortium [BAPVC] will fund industry-relevant research and development to impact high-volume PV manufacturing, using a competitive selection process open to all universities.

This project, managed by Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, will develop and test the innovative new materials, device structures, and fabrication processes necessary to achieve cost effective PV modules in high-volume production. The research will advance technologies that reduce manufacturing costs and improve device performance characteristics to help achieve SunShot’s price targets.

An industry board composed of representatives from PV companies will determine the specific topics for research and development to assure close alignment with industry and manufacturing needs.

* SVTC Technologies [San Jose, Cal.] -- $25 million for Industry-Focused Development
SVTC will create a fee-for-service PV manufacturing development facility [MDF] that will enable startups, materials suppliers, and other PV innovators to eliminate a major portion of their upfront capital and operating costs during product development and pilot production. This will potentially accelerate development and time to market by 12 to 15 months.

The MDF will focus on commercialization of silicon PV manufacturing processes and technologies, and aim to reduce the costs and development time for participating PV industry leaders to deliver innovative, emerging technologies from the laboratory to commercial manufacturing lines.

The MDF will support SunShot targets by strengthening and accelerating growth along the PV manufacturing industry’s entire supply chain by reducing the cost, time, and risk associated with commercialization.

* U.S. Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium [Albany, N.Y. and Palm Bay, Fla.] – $62.5 million for Industry-Focused Development
Managed by SEMATECH, the U.S. Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium [PVMC] will coordinate an industry-driven research-and-development initiative to accelerate the development, manufacturing and commercialization of next-generation copper indium gallium selenide [CIGS] thin-film PV manufacturing technologies, driving down the cost and risk of bringing them to the marketplace.

PVMC -- with its major partner, the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at the State University of New York at Albany -- will establish manufacturing development facilities that PV companies and researchers can use for product prototyping, demonstration, and pilot-scale manufacturing to evaluate and validate CIGS thin-film and PV manufacturing technologies.

PVMC will also work with the University of Central Florida to develop cost-effective, in-line measurement and inspection tools to enable increased PV manufacturing yield.

In addition, PVMC will operate complementary programs to foster new PV technologies and firms, and to develop the U.S. PV workforce. The proposed project will use heavy industry leveraging funds for every $1 of DOE funding.

The SunShot program builds on the legacy of President John F. Kennedy's 1960s "moon shot" goal, which laid out a plan to regain the country's lead in the space race and land a man on the moon. The program will aggressively drive innovations in the ways that solar systems are conceived, designed, manufactured and installed.

For more information and to follow the SunShot Initiative's progress, visit the SunShot Initiative website: http://1.usa.gov/SunShotDOE.

GoodBiz113's Take
DOE's just-announced solar manufacturing partnerships will boost American competitiveness in the global solar energy industry and lower the cost of clean, renewable energy. Further, they'll promote entrepreneurship and generate much-needed jobs.

Chalk it up as yet another win-win-win-win endeavor by the Obama Administration -- one that holds far-reaching potential for decades to come.

SOURCES: NASA, U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy [EERE], Wikipedia
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DOE Releases New Report on Benefits of Recovery Act for Small Businesses in Clean Energy, Environmental Management Sectors

The U.S. Department of Energy today released a new report -- "Small Businesses Helping Drive Economy: Clean Energy, Clean Sites" -- that highlights the benefits of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 [ARRA] to small businesses throughout the clean, renewable-energy industry and environmental management sector.

This report found that, as of early March 2010, small businesses have been selected to receive nearly $5.4 billion in funding across a number of Recovery Act and related programs -- including loans, loan guarantees, grants, contracts and tax incentives -- in partnership with the U.S. Department of Treasury.

The report highlights 26 small businesses in a range of clean-energy technologies -- e.g., wind, solar, biofuels -- along with critical new infrastructure, such as Smart Grid, advanced batteries, energy storage, and energy-efficiency tools. It also notes small businesses that are helping to advance responsible environmental cleanup efforts.

Energy Secretary Dr. Steven Chu [pictured] and Small Business Administrator Karen Mills highlighted the report as part of a media conference call. The call also featured Scott Lang, CEO of Silver Spring Networks, and Harrison Dillon, president and CTO of Solazyme Inc.

"Small businesses are the backbone of job creation in this country and have been a springboard for innovation in the clean-energy sector," said Secretary Chu. "The work these companies do and the innovation they produce will go a long way in helping our economy grow, and our nation succeed."

SBA Administrator Mills concurred. "Small businesses have created about 64 percent of the new jobs over the past 15 years," she noted. "Already, small businesses are one of the driving forces in the green-energy sector. With resources like those provided through the Department of Energy and SBA, we have a unique opportunity to support the creation of good, well-paying jobs here at home -- jobs that will also help keep America competitive."

Read the full report: http://bit.ly/SmallBizCleanEnergy.

Some success stories highlighted in the report include:

* UQM Technologies Inc., of Frederick, Col., is a well-established supplier of prototype electric propulsion and generator systems -- including electric rotating machines and drive electronics. For more than two decades, the company has supplied these systems to both established and aspiring automakers. In 2006, UQM completed an R&D project with the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy [EERE] Vehicle Technologies Program to design a power-dense motor for use in electric drive vehicles. UQM is now positioned to take its technology into production, establishing a U.S. volume manufacturer of electric drive systems. The $45 million grant that UQM received under the Recovery Act will enable UQM to establish manufacturing facilities for production volumes of 120,000 electric drive systems per year, powering all-electric, hybrid-electric, plug-in hybrid-electric passenger cars and hybrid-electric trucks and buses, creating up to 3,000 jobs.

* Silver Spring Networks, based in Redwood City, Cal., did not receive a direct grant under the Smart Grid Investment Grant [SGIG] Program, but it is still a big winner through its partnerships with many utilities around the country. For instance, Florida Power & Light [FPL] received a $200 million grant for its Energy Smart Miami project, which represents the foundation of a $700 million investment to deploy Smart Meters to every residential FPL customer in Florida. Silver Spring provides the hardware, software and services that connect every device on the grid, creating a unified Smart Energy Platform. Other utility clients of Silver Spring who received SGIG grants include Pepco Holdings Inc., Oklahoma Gas & Electric, and American Electric Power.

* Solazyme Inc., a San Francisco-based company, is a true start-up success story. Founded in 2003 by a scientist and entrepreneur who were among the first people to focus on algae as an alternative to conventional fuels, the company has pioneered a new technology to produce biodiesel and green diesel from algae oil. Like most emerging technology companies, Solazyme faced a huge obstacle in obtaining adequate funds to commercialize its technology. However, with a $21.8 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act [ARRA] grant under the Biomass Program, Solazyme will now be able to build its first integrated algae fuel refinery and help lay the foundation for subsequent large-scale development of an "advanced biofuels" industry. The project will create jobs in California and Pennsylvania.

* FloDesign Wind Turbine Corp. is a fledgling start-up that won an MIT clean-energy competition last year. The company is developing a new high-efficiency shrouded wind turbine capable of delivering significantly more energy per unit of swept area. FloDesign Wind’s $8.3 million ARPA-E grant represents a major increase in resources for the company that will have a dramatic effect on its ability to ramp up technology development.

* Universal Display Corporation was awarded a $4 million ARRA grant by DOE, under the Building Technologies Program [BTP] to scale and transfer its technologies to a partner pilot organic light-emitting diodes [OLED] manufacturing line to be set up in the U.S. The project will facilitate the growth of the embryonic OLED lighting industry by providing prototype lighting panels to U.S. luminaire manufacturers -- to incorporate into products, to facilitate testing of design, and to gauge customer acceptance. Part of a new DOE initiative designed to help establish and maintain U.S. leadership in solid-state lighting manufacturing, the funding will help UDC lay the foundation for the development of an OLED lighting industry in the U.S.

In toto, the Recovery Act awarded DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy [EERE] $16.8 billion for its programs and initiatives. For details about EERE's funding and how it is being spent, go to: http://bit.ly/RecoveryActEERE.

SOURCES: Recovery.gov, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Small Business Administration
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