Why Over $40 Million in Success Is Just the Start

This Energy I-Corps team, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO), focused on developing solar cells more efficiently. The Office of Technology Transitions' Energy I-Corps program offers an intensive, 2-month commercialization training to DOE National Laboratory teams to identify potential markets for technology commercialization. The team from National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) participated in Cohort 4 as team HALO to use Hydride Vapor Phase Epitaxy (HVPE) to fabricate high performance solar cells at a lower cost. 

For scientific researchers in U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Lab complex, the ultimate marker of success is getting their technology out of the lab and into the market. However, many signs of success come before, especially in major financial support, for a project to help it reach that goal. 

Since participating in the Energy I-Corps program in 2016, the HVPE team at NREL has been awarded more than $40 million in funding. 

“Energy I-Corps was the absolute best professional development I’ve ever done in my life,” Principal Scientist Aaron Ptak said. “It was incredibly intensive, but it was completely worth it. I would do it again and recommend others do as well.”  

Energy I-Corps helps teams from National Labs connect with industry stakeholders about the technology they work on and discuss its viability for commercialization. As part of the program, participants hold 75 or more stakeholder discovery interviews and present their findings to the cohort each week, learning as they go.  

“We conducted 84 interviews to help us understand the ecosystem,” Ptak said. “For what it’s worth, we had the most in our cohort in terms of interviews.” 

Ptak and David Young's Energy I-Corps Cohort 4 team was funded by DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO). The development of their technology for solar applications has been supported by SETO since 2013 to build upon a process initially developed throughout the 1980s and 90s to use less expensive starting materials, uses those materials more efficiently, and deposit solar cells at much higher rates.  

Since their time in Energy I-Corps, the team has won $43 million in follow-on funding, coming mostly from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), but also awards from the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), SETO, and others.  

“It’s a crucial part of the research process to get out and talk to real people and understand their problems,” Ptak said. “Researchers don’t know everything. We’re smart people, but we get insulated from the real world. Energy I-Corps taught us to not be afraid of picking up the phone and calling someone. Asking a question and giving someone space to answer is a hugely important skill.” 

He believes this skill led to many of the grants his team earned over the past eight years. This funding has helped get HVPE ready for licensing, but its commercialization journey is not over yet.  

Bill Hadley, senior licensing executive in NREL’s Tech Transfer Office, helps transfer research from the lab to industry partners. He explained that while DOD is very interested in the HVPE technology, the federal government cannot manufacture products. 

“We’re looking for partners who can fabricate these solar cells, but that involves a major investment in a whole new manufacturing process,” Hadley said. “We’ve shown proof of concept on a small scale, and we have the prototype reactor that interested parties can soon see in action before they sign anything.” 

Hadley believes having Ptak involved in conversations with potential licensees is invaluable, and he attributes this skill to Energy I-Corps. 

“It trains our inventors to think like entrepreneurs,” Hadley said. “The training and exposure that Energy I-Corps provides paves the road for our inventors to begin thinking about commercializing their technologies.” 

That is why Hadley, Ptak and the rest of the team believe commercialization success is just over the horizon.