The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced it will open up voting on its ‘America's Next Top Energy Innovator’ competition, which aims to make it easier, quicker and cheaper for U.S. clean energy entrepreneurs to access the patents of 17 National Laboratories and the Y-12 National Security Complex.
As of last week's submission deadline, 36 start-up companies signed 43 option agreements allowing them to license the cutting-edge technologies.
Beginning in mid-January, Americans will be able to view profiles of the companies and vote for the ones that could make the greatest contributions to the country's economic and energy future. An expert panel will also evaluate the companies and decide which ones have made the most progress in achieving their business plans.
The winner will be featured at the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit in February.
‘We've challenged America's entrepreneurs and innovators to create new businesses based on discoveries made by our world-leading national laboratories,’ says DOE Secretary Steven Chu. ‘This is about cutting through the red tape and knocking down barriers so that we can take full advantage of America's innovation machine. We are unleashing start-up companies to do what they do best: create new products, new industries, and new jobs.’
More details on the energy competition participants can be viewed here.
