The Department of Energy (DOE) has announced the launch of the National Incubator Initiative for Clean Energy (NIICE). NIICE will serve a national support network for the nation’s clean energy startup community and the incubators that support them. The network will provide technical assistance and training services to help clean energy startups move their products closer to market readiness. It also will help establish a suite of technological and training resources, bring together energy industry partners, enhance incubator best practices, and increase access to information about industry resources to advance innovative clean energy technologies with commercial viability emerging from institutions of higher education and federal laboratories.
DOE will commit most of the $3.2 million to support three clean energy-focused incubators to run their programs and commercialization services for clean energy startups and develop best practices for clean energy incubators that can be replicated nationwide. Awardees include:
- The NextEnergy Center in Detroit, MI, and the Clean Energy Trust in Chicago, IL, will receive more than $745,000 to establish the Midwest Innovation Bridge.
- The Austin Technology Incubator at the University of Texas in Austin will receive more than $745,000 to form the Southwest Regional Clean Energy Incubation Initiative.
- The Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator will receive more than $729,000 to establish California’s first statewide clean energy incubator collaboration — the California Cleantech Commercialization Coalition (4C) Program.
The nearly $1 million in remaining funding will be used to fund a national organization, the Clean Technology Accelerator Program (CleanTAP), which will be led by the Electric Power Research Institute in Knoxville, TN. In partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, CleanTAP will coordinate clean energy-focused business incubators nationwide and provide online and technical resources to clean energy startups across the country. Among its proposed activities, CleanTAP will develop a National Asset Map of public and private clean energy assets.
