Grants offered to move clean energy out of laboratories

The $150,000 that an Incline Village nonprofit plans to put into commercialization of promising renewable-energy technology is likely to draw a lot of interest.

The first two times that Nevada Institute for Renewable Energy Commercialization NIREC, for short called for applications from Nevada clean-energy companies, it drew nearly three dozen responses.

Six companies were chosen to receive financial and organizational help from the institute.

While money is always nice, the organizational help can be particularly critical.

Reno-based Intelligent Building Utility Conservation Systems LLC, for instance, looks to commercialize technology developed at Desert Research Institute as one of NIREC's portfolio companies.

Chief Executive Officer Hampden Kuhns says the company was matched up with an NIREC Entrepreneur in Residence Maureen Mullarkey, retired chief financial officer of International Game Technology who has provided invaluable aid in shaping the underlying technology into a company.

James Croce, president and chief executive officer of the two-year-old NIREC, said last week that the organization will open its doors to new proposals this week. A technology and commercialization advisory board of private-sector executives, government officials and academics picks the companies to be funded.

The first time NIREC opened the grant process, it drew 14 applicants. The number grew to 18 for a round of funding that opened early this year.

The nonprofit was created with $500,000 in state funding, and now taps federal funds, mostly through the Department of Energy.

NIREC's goal is straightforward, Croce said: Get promising technology out of research labs and into commercial production in Nevada.

Speaking to more than 400 people at the 2009 National Small Business Innovation Research and the Small Business Technology Transfer Conference in Sparks last week, Croce said one of the biggest challenges faced by the renewable energy sector is access to capital.

The problem is especially severe, he said, for companies that plan large-scale generating facilities such as those driven by geothermal resources in Nevada.

"If you want to play in the energy business in a big way, you need a lot of capital," Croce said.

Investors are sometimes wary of the clean-energy business, he said, because of the long lead times required to get renewable facilities into operation as well as concerns that changes in the regulatory climate could damage the economic viability of a project.

About half the entrepreneurs and researchers at last week's conference indicated they are involved in the renewable-energy field.