DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is putting the world-class resources of the national labs at your fingertips with the SBV Pilot. In the first two rounds, 76 small businesses received vouchers for approximately $15 million in technical assistance from national labs to help bring the next generation of clean-energy technologies to market. The SBV pilot gives our nation’s clean-tech small businesses the opportunity to take their innovative products to the next level. By supporting their growth, the U.S. helps these companies make a more meaningful impact on the economy and clean-energy sector.
Over rounds three and four, $12 million is available for vouchers across EERE’s clean-energy sectors. EERE’s Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) has nearly $800 thousand available to support vouchers in all of its mission areas of EGS, Hydrothermal, Low Temperature, and Systems Analysis. Companies have until November 10 to submit RFAs for round three; round four is expected to be announced early in 2017.
Businesses interested in SBV funding must be U.S.-based and U.S.-owned, with no more than 500 full-time employees worldwide. Individual vouchers range from $50,000 to $300,000 per small business and can be used to perform collaborative research or access to lab instrumentation or facilities. Companies selected must also provide a 20 percent cost share for completing voucher work. EERE welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with small businesses that have little to no experience working with a DOE national laboratory.
GTO will be on-hand at the GRC Annual Meeting & GEA GeoExpo+ in Sacramento, CA, October 23-26, to answer questions. For more information please contact Josh Mengers at joshua.mengers@ee.doe.gov.
To learn more about the process to submit a RFA please visit www.SBV.org.
