Three NREL Partners Selected for National Competition

The US Department of Energy (DOE) ran a competition to name America’s Next Top Energy Innovator. The DOE even went so far as to encourage the public to vote on an energy technology that they thought would impact the most.

Three of the 14 competitors had been contributed to by NREL.  NREL is dedicated to the further development of technology in renewable energy.  Of the three NREL backed competitors, two are based in Colorado.

Element One of Boulder has developed a cost effective hydrogen indicating system to visually indicate the status or a change in hydrogen in a given environment. A variety of uses could include protective gear, pain, piping and other equipment. Basically, it’s a coating that changes color to indicate hazardous gas leaks or dangerous levels of hydrogen.

Also based in Boulder is CCIA member, US e-Chromic LLC. US e-Chromic LLC creates thin films to retro fit windows to create smart windows that reflect the sunlight instead of absorb and reemit it as heat. These thin films can save commercial building operators in air conditioning costs.

The third NREL partner, based in Woburn, Mass. is developing technology that allows for solar or other waste heat sources to be used in liquid desiccant HVAC systems for commercial and industrial buildings. Ultimately, these systems can become net-zero retrofits to existing buildings and operate at costs comparable to traditional HVAC systems.

All three technologies were born at NREL and are now being developed by the partner companies. 

Voting ended Feb. 6th; you can view voting results at http://energy.gov/articles/america-chooses-next-top-energy-innovator