On June 9th, Community Energy Labs, among others, received a Phase 1 SBIR award from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Their $206,230 award will allow them to develop a grid-smart platform to help small and mid-sized commercial buildings fulfill their goals of becoming energy efficient. Tanya Barham, CEO of Community Energy Labs, commented, “Nothing we ever accomplish is without the help, support and encouragement of many, many incredible subject matter experts, program managers and supportive community members along the way.” Tanya and Community Energy Labs are part of the first Women-Led GovMarket Growth Accelerator cohort being put on by Public Spend Forum and Shatter Fund.
Striving to accomplish net-zero emissions by 2050, the DOE awarded a total of $54 million to 235 small businesses working on 266 projects providing solutions to energy needs. Through the SBIR/STTR programs, women and economically or socially disadvantaged persons are encouraged to become engaged in entrepreneurship and innovation. They also seek to increase private-sector commercialization of innovations obtained from federal R&D funding.
These Phase I SBIR awards connect with the DOE’s greater goal of advancing the Biden-Harris administration’s Justice40 Initiative, a devotion to distribute 40% of the total benefits of clean energy technology investments to underserved and overburdened communities.
The SBIR/STTR program awards were administered to:
- 29 women-owned businesses
- 31 identified socially disadvantaged or low income business owners
- 37 states associated as HUBZones, a Small Business Administration program to stimulate growth of small businesses in historically underutilized business zones
Along with these recent awards, 102 small businesses received over $100 million earlier this year from the DOE for the advancement of sustainable technologies.
In the announcement on June 9th, the DOE also released an Inclusive Innovation Request for Information (RFI) to help better understand how their funding opportunities and innovations for climate and energy technology research can be more inclusive, just, and equitable.
Congratulations to all recipients of the SBIR/STTR program awards! For more information about the SBIR program as well as other resources for small businesses looking to work with the public sector, please consider visiting the GovShop Small Business Resource Center.
To find out more about Community Energy Labs or other award recipients, please visit the GovShop supplier database where you can search from over 2 million suppliers.
To claim and edit your company’s GovShop profile, please visit the following link to create a free account. Or, you can click on the link to your company’s profile and find the “Claim This Profile” prompt on the top left of the page.
To read the original press release from DOE, please visit this link.