The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) will fund 49 new Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) research and development projects across 23 states, totaling nearly $53.4 million in funding.
Small businesses receive Phase II Release 2 grants for principal research and development efforts based on the technical feasibility demonstrated in Phase I projects. Phase II awards range up to $1,500,000 for two years.
The Building Technologies Office has funded six of the 49 awards:
- V-Glass of Pewaukee, Wisconsin, is developing vacuum glass for R-10 windows that will increase the reliability and yield of glass-to-metal bonding in atmospheric conditions while avoiding the need for organic getters with a fast process time.
- Upstate Parts & Supply Inc. of East Syracuse, New York, is developing a compact, high-efficiency air handling unit (AHU) for residential HVAC systems. The technology integrates three essential AHU components into a compact, highly efficient subsystem that achieves improvements in energy efficiency beyond what is possible in conventional AHUs.
- Glint Photonics of Burlingame, California, is developing anti-reflective materials for high-efficiency lighting that will increase lighting fixture efficiency and reduce glare.
- InnoSys of Salt Lake City, Utah, is developing novel materials for flexible solid-state lighting. Their approach uses a high-efficiency device that avoids the need for phosphor down-conversion and unstable, low-efficiency blue emissions from OLEDs.
- Onboard Data Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is developing a multi-task learning framework for automating the classification of building data. This framework will prepare accurate and accessible data for advanced software and eliminate bottlenecks to market adoption.
- PassiveLogic Inc. of Salt Lake City, Utah, is developing in-building fusion of deep data from digital twins and their concomitant control schemes.
Small businesses play a major role in spurring innovation and creating jobs in the U.S. economy. Congress created the SBIR and STTR programs to leverage small businesses to advance innovation at federal agencies. Information on the DOE SBIR and STTR programs is available on the Office of Science SBIR website.