November 10, 2008—The US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recently singled out four entrepreneurial companies from 35 competitively selected presenters at its 21st Clean Energy Industry Growth Forum to win the 2008 Best Venture Awards. Xcel Energy Foundation presented four cash awards for excellence totaling $25,000.
Porous Power Technologies, LLC located in Lafayette, CO, took the top prize, receiving the Best Early Venture of the Year award ($10,000). Porous Power Technologies is commercializing highly efficient separator membranes that can dramatically improve the performance and reduce the cost of lithium-ion batteries.
The Best Early Venture of the Year second place award ($5,000) went to bioenergy plants and algae company Evolutionary Genomics, in Colorado.
The Best Late Stage Investment of the Year Award ($5,000) was given to Tendril, in Colorado, for a software and hardware system that allows utilities and their residential customers to manage their consumption of energy.
The Best Early Seed Investment of the Year Award ($5,000) went to Ampulse Corp., in Colorado. Ampulse is a Battelle Ventures-funded company developing a low-cost, high efficiency solar cell technology, utilizing unique silicon manufacturing techniques and materials developed in research at NREL and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).
