Press Release: More Awards Given Than Ever at 2024 NREL Industry Growth Forum | News

May 3, 2024 Vaseline stjohnson 0

Entrepreneurs earned top awards after presenting to judges at this year’s event

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) presented awards to eight leading clean technology innovators at the 2024 NREL Industry Growth Forum (IGF) on May 1-3, 2024, the most honors ever awarded during the annual event.

at 29th year, with its theme “Breaking Paths,” the IGF provided access to cutting-edge technologies, including a new Production Scale Pilot Stage category, to help drive technology development and adoption and promote the clean energy transformation . This was the second year in a row that the event was completely sold out.

A panel of judges comprised of investors deliberated to identify winners from a field of 40 companies that presented their technologies during the event. In early 2024, the IGF team selected 40 innovators from 211 applicants.

“It’s exciting to look back at where we’ve come and see so many technologies at a point where they’re ready to scale and deploy,” said Trish Cozart, director of NREL’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “Looking at what breaking ground really means and how technology adoption and market drivers impact startups is a critical next step for many startups. Meeting at the IGF to discuss those opportunities and realities is vitally important.”

The Industry Growth Forum is the premier cleantech event bringing together entrepreneurs, investors and industry experts so they can connect and forge new partnerships. The event allows them to share cutting-edge technologies, emerging resources and models to bring clean technologies to market. In addition to the cleantech innovation pitch competition, the IGF organized almost 1,500 one-on-one meetings between startups and investors and more than 1,600 additional ad hoc meetings.

“Each year of the IGF is more inspiring than the last,” said Katie Richardson, IEC Group Director. “With nearly 900 attendees from around the world, the people gathered here are working together to drive the adoption of climate technology. “The IGF deepens connections across the ecosystem to implement the innovations needed for a clean energy transition.”

This year’s award winners:

Exceptional Entrepreneurship: Initial Stage

  • 1street Location: Aryton Energy. Ayrton Energy is located in Alberta, Canada, and has liquid organic hydrogen transportation technology that safely stores hydrogen in liquid form for easy transportation.
  • 2North Dakota Location: Otoro Energy. In Boulder, Colorado, Otoro Energy develops flow battery technology for grid resilience and renewable energy, focusing on the electric vehicle charging market.

Featured company: commercialization stage

  • 1street location: Mitra Chem. Based in Mountain View, California, Mitra Chem is a manufacturer of cathodes for lithium-ion batteries that shortens the time from lab to production by more than 90% by leveraging an internal advantage of machine learning.
  • 2nd Place: Mycocycle: Bolingbrook, Illinois-based Mycocycle is decarbonizing the building materials supply chain through a nature-inspired waste recovery solution.

Exceptional Entrepreneurship: Growth Stage

  • 1street place: CleanFiber. Based in Buffalo, New York, CleanFiber manufactures high-performance, carbon-negative building insulation from recycled corrugated cardboard.

Featured company: innovation pilot phase/production scale

  • 1street place: Living Ink Technologies. In Berthoud, Colorado, Living Ink Technologies generates bio-derived, carbon-negative black pigments from biomass waste for consumer brands.

Best Entrepreneurship Award

  • Queens Carbon – Headquartered in Pine Brook, New Jersey, Queens Carbon develops low CO systems2 manufacturing technology to produce cementitious materials from industry standard raw materials at competitive costs.

People’s Choice Award

  • Adena Power – From Lewis Center, Ohio, Adena Power offers energy storage using sodium batteries and domestically sourced raw materials.

For a list of participating companies and sponsors, and for more information about the Industry Growth Forum, Visit us online at www.nrelforum.com.

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy’s primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for the Department of Energy by Alliance for Sustainable Energy LLC.