The gap between the marketplace and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's (LBNL) clean technologies has narrowed, thanks to a new program that drew more than 100 students, scientists, venture capitalists, and industry representatives from companies like AT&T and Pacific Gas & Electric Co., to the University of California (UC) Berkeley campus December 4.
They came to hear what eight teams of UC Berkeley graduate students had to say about the commercial viability of a handful of Berkeley Lab innovations that reduce adverse environmental impacts and promote sustainability.
The students, who study law, business, public policy and engineering, spent the last ten weeks asking the kinds of questions not often found in scientific analyses: What are the roadblocks to implementation? Does it have revenue potential? Is it likely to be backed by venture capitalists?
Some students even hit the pavement and rounded up potential investors who may be interested in backing the technologies.
Their work is at the heart of a recently launched program called Cleantech to Market, or C2M for short, which is a partnership between LBNL's Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Management Department and the Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative, an organization founded by MBA students at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business.
"The student teams can drill more deeply into these technologies than we in Tech Transfer have the resources to do, given that we market 40 to 50 technologies a year," said Robin Johnston, a licensing analyst in the Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Management Department who helped launch the program. "The program is also creating for the Lab what universities with business schools take for granted: entrepreneurial alumni who look to their alma maters for resources such as people, ideas and, in this case, technology."
The student-led market research, which started this semester as a pilot program, seeks to provide greater exposure for promising LBNL technologies, foster connections with the entrepreneurial and venture-capital community, and spur the adoption of innovative business practices and policies thatpromote energy efficiency.
In the program's first batch of projects, eight teams totaling 40 students were matched with a who's who of LBNL clean energy technologies: advanced biofuels, a novel solar chemical storage invention, a fabrication method for photovoltaic devices, an innovative electrolyte for batteries, and a low-cost water purification system. Other teams pored over strategies for implementing smart facades for efficient buildings, low roll resistant tires, and intellectual property and business models for developing countries.
The students' work culminated in market analyses, financial models, and recommendations that were presented at the Dec. 4 event.
The reports were prepared with help from the LBNL scientists who developed the technologies, as well as outside experts such as venture capitalists, business attorneys, and industry reps. For some LBNL scientists, a market analysis and economic feasibility study wasn't the only benefit of the crossdisciplinary collaboration.
"A significant value of the team for me was in rounding up venture capital groups who were likely to be interested in the technology," said Elton Cairns, a scientist in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division, who developed a high conductivity electrolyte for lithiumion batteries suitable for electronics and automotive applications.
More info: www.epa.gov/nheerl/
