Small Biz to Benefit from $1.5M Grant to Expand 'Green' Building Tech

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The Delaware Valley Industrial Resources Center (DVIRC) and the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NJMEP) have been awarded a $1.5 million grant over the next three years to expand manufacturing of energy-efficient building technologies, reports IndustryWeek.

The grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) complements a larger U.S. Department of Energy project (PDF) announced in August that provides up to $122 million to the Pennsylvania State University for an Energy Innovation Hub at the Philadelphia Navy Yard Clean Energy campus. The hub will focus on developing energy-efficient building designs that save energy and cut pollution.

MEP said in the article that the project is the first time that federal, state, and local public and private resources will be used together to create a formal applied research/manufacturing cluster that covers the lab bench to production and implementation.

DVIRC and NJMEP will connect small and mid-size manufacturers to the project at all levels including R&D, design and testing of new products, materials, technologies, systems, and commercialization.

Both organizations also will leverage their relationships with regional companies to identify technologies such as sensors, new building materials, and computer simulation tools developed by the Energy Innovation Hub, which they can turn into products that can be licensed, developed and manufactured. 

In February, seven federal agencies announced funding of up to $129.7 million over five years to create an Energy Regional Innovation Cluster (E-RIC) centered around an Energy Innovation Hub focused on developing new technologies to improve the design of energy-efficient building systems.

This is one of the three proposed by the Administration and funded by Congress in the FY10 budget

Environment + Energy Leader