Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) announced five Phase 2 winners of the “Energy Program for Innovation Clusters” (EPIC) Round 3, and one of those is the Spark Innovation Center at the University of Tennessee (UT) Research Park.

According to the DOE announcement, EPIC Round 3 is a multi-phase funding opportunity that aims to encourage energy innovation ecosystems, increase local clean energy business productivity, and improve the commercial success of energy tech startups. Now in its third consecutive year of competition, the EPIC program has gained recognition as a valuable resource for organizations supporting clean energy innovation and entrepreneurship.

“The EPIC program represents a strategic investment in one of our Nation’s best job creation catalysts – the incubator and accelerator community. The Office of Technology Transitions, along with our Round 3 funding partners in the Office of Grid Deployment and the Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office, is proud to support the incubators and accelerators that are on the ground helping clean energy entrepreneurs thrive,” said Dr. Vanessa Z. Chan, DOE Chief Commercialization Officer and Director of OTT. “Each year of the program bolsters the tremendous impact these organizations can have on cleantech start-ups in their communities.”

In Phase 1 of the prize round, 23 incubators and accelerators were each awarded $150,000 for their programs designed to support energy start-ups and entrepreneurs. With the culmination of Phase 2, five competing teams were selected as grand prize winners and offered the chance to negotiate a three-year, million-dollar cooperative agreement with OTT.

The funding will be earmarked for SparkShop, an initiative that will provide product development support, resources, and training designed to help cleantech start-ups accelerate market entry, validate technology, and boost investor confidence. It is a collaborative effort with two UT, Knoxville programs: the Tickle College of Engineering and the Center for Materials Processing (CMP).

In addition to the Spark Innovation Center, which was the only awardee in the Southeast, the other winners are and their plans are as follows:

1. Arrowhead Center at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, NM: The Arrowhead RenewTech Incubator will build on in-house incubator offerings, focusing on emerging energy and water technologies. Cohorts will either work with national lab technologies available for licensing or solve community/industry challenges with their own or lab technologies.
2. ClimateHaven Inc. in New Haven, CT:- ClimateHaven MVP will provide business support services to companies in Connecticut, focusing on early stage companies, with sector-specific support in the field of green chemistry/engineering. The award for this team is co-funded by the Energy Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office.
3. Dominion Energy Innovation Center (DEIC) in Ashland, VA: The DEIC Hyperscaled initiative will focus specifically on start-ups related to or supporting data center energy usage.
4. Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust (PRSTRT) inSan Juan, Puerto Rico: Project Switch will build on PRSTRT’s success with its Parallel18 accelerator program, with the goal of centering Puerto Rico as the premier hub of energy innovation in the Americas. The award for this team is co-funded by the Grid Deployment Office.

The OTT EPIC program has been supporting incubators since it was launched in 2020. The impact has been far-reaching, beginning with the first Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) awardees in 2021. As of February 2024, in their third year of a three-year award, the 10 incubators funded under the Round 1 FOA have supported 230 companies with a total annual revenue of $33M and secured more than $138M in follow-on funding. The companies supported by these incubators reported that they created 1,800 jobs since FY 2021.

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