Department of Energy visits Knoxville to announce $10 million program for local startups

Daniel Dassow, Knoxville News Sentinel
Updated ·3 min read

Getting clean energy technology from a lab to the market is a notorious challenge, but U.S. Department of Energy officials visited Knoxville to announce six local vouchers that will give startups valuable assistance along the way.

The $10 million voucher program, created by the department in 2023, helps solve a persistent problem for tech startups: How do you develop complicated technology and commercialize it before running out of money?

The Department of Energy curated a list of companies and labs that are experts at answering that question, and it's giving over 100 tech startups across the country vouchers to work with them.

Vanessa Chan, chief commercialization officer for the Department of Energy, announced six local vouchers collectively worth over $1 million on Jan. 22 at the Spark Innovation Center at the University of Tennessee Research Park.

One of the recipients, Knoxville startup FC Renew, will work with the tech consulting firm Strategic Analysis. FC Renew is developing hydrogen fuel technology that could one day help electrify the commercial aviation and trucking sectors.

CEO Philip Stukey said the voucher is a game changer, providing his company access to the economic know-how it needs to commercialize its research.

"We really have to work on per unit pricing, the timing, the market, how the supply chains are working, and evolving as the market grows," Stukey said. "So all these challenges come together, beyond the technology that really is what we need to be focused on."

Why did Department of Energy come to Knoxville?

Knoxville joins the academic rigor of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville with the research power at nearby Oak Ridge National Laboratory, creating a "unique ecosystem" that drives clean tech innovations, said Chan, who also directs the Department of Energy's Office of Technology Transitions.

"Knoxville is one of the places that literally gives me goosebumps because I just feel like there's so much energy," Chan told Knox News. "You've got academia, you've got government officials, you have it all."

Behind the scientists at ORNL, the Department of Energy's largest science and tech national laboratory, there is a team that works to protect their inventions and license them to private companies that will bring them to the market.

In the last year alone, ORNL's Technology Transfer team collected 300 inventions from the lab and secured 80 patents, said the team's director Jen Caldwell.

"We try to capture these innovations at the lab so that we can partner with industry, and it's really important that we have programs that facilitate that transition," Caldwell said. "A lot of times, the early days, it really does take the person who came up with the idea to help the company problem-solve and troubleshoot."

The voucher program is part of a larger push by the Department of Energy to use the Biden administration's giant investments in clean energy to support overlooked cities. Of the 111 companies in 46 states that received vouchers, Chan said half had never received department funding before.

It's also an acknowledgement that cities across the U.S. are handling clean energy development differently.

The department typically visits cities like Knoxville to announce multi-million or even billion-dollar grants, like through its $7 billion hydrogen hubs program, funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The voucher program, funded by the same law, has a much smaller price tag. Its value comes largely from social capital, as the department brings local startups together with expert consulting firms, software companies and labs.

Which local groups won clean energy vouchers?

Of the six vouchers with local ties, three went to local startups and three went to ORNL to help advise startups:

  • FC Renew in Knoxville will work with Virginia-based Strategic Analysis

  • Electro-Active Technologies in Knoxville will work with Houston-based CPFD Software

  • EKAMORE, a Cookeville company turning trash into fuels, will work with CPFD Software

  • KVA Technologies in California will work with ORNL

  • Elite Energy LLC in Delaware will work with ORNL

  • Dimensional Energy in New York will work with ORNL

Daniel Dassow is a growth and development reporter focused on technology and energy. Phone 423-637-0878. Email daniel.dassow@knoxnews.com.

Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.   

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Department of Energy unveils $10 million vouchers to local startups