The National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition inspired nearly 300 university teams across the country to create new businesses to commercialize promising energy technologies developed at U.S. universities and the National Laboratories. After pitching their business plans to panels of judges at the regional semifinals and finals, six teams advanced to the national competition for a chance to compete in the popular vote and a grand prize determined by an expert panel of judges.
Congratulations to:
NuMat Technologies from Northwestern University, the National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition grand prize winner
Navillum Nanotechnologies from the University of Utah, the winner of the online vote
Voting ran from May 24 until June 12. The team with the most ‘likes’ was announced along with the grand prize winner June 13 at an awards ceremony at the White House.
Note: 'Likes' for each company were inspected and validated. 'Likes' cast by automated voting methods were disqualified.
Innovators
The Stanford Nitrogen Group developed a new wastewater treatment process, termed “CANDO”, for the removal and recovery of energy from waste nitrogen. The CANDO technology improves the efficiency of nitrogen treatment by lowering energy inputs and enabling energy recovery from waste nitrogen.
Navillum Nanotechnologies developed a process to fabricate quantum dots and other types of semiconducting nanocrystals. When used in liquid crystal displays (LCD), quantum dots improve energy efficiency by up to 35 percent and in solar panels can increase efficiency up to 45 percent.
NuMat Technologies, Inc is a cleantech spin-out that computationally designs and synthesizes high-performing nanomaterials for gas storage and separation applications. NuMat has developed materials that will fundamentally change the economics of gas storage in natural gas vehicles — supporting the gradual displacement of foreign oil.
Radiator Labs developed a low-cost, easily installed radiator retrofit that converts radiator heating systems into a controlled-zoned system, which significantly increases the efficiency of radiator heating while improving occupant comfort.
SolidEnergy Systems developed cutting-edge battery technologies to meet the world’s growing energy storage demand. The Polymer Ionic Liquid (PIL) rechargeable lithium battery has four times the energy density of a conventional lithium-ion battery.
Mesdi Systems developed revolutionary equipment for manufacturing lithium-ion batteries, solar cells, and other high precision products that will improve their performance and lifetime with advanced coatings and quality control.
How is your 'like' counted? The number of 'likes' cast for each company will determine the winner. Voting will stop on June 12 at 4 p.m. EDT. The winner of the online vote will be determined by the number of 'likes' cast for their company. The number of 'likes' will not be considered in the matrix for scoring the grand prize winners of the National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition. Members of the winning team of the online vote will receive an in-kind prize.
Note: Individuals can 'like' one company or multiple companies more than once; however, if tampering by bots or other automated voting methods is suspected, the affected teams' voting entries ('likes') may be inspected and corrected to give an accurate representation of valid likes.
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Disclaimer: This exercise does not represent an endorsement of these companies by the U.S. Department of Energy.