As every small business owner knows, small businesses don’t have the same resources and abilities that major industry players do. This is evident when it comes to building or retrofitting your business for energy efficiency and eco-friendliness. The good news is the Department of Energy knows the struggles of small businesses and has created a voucher program to ease some of their pains in going green.
The Small Business Vouchers (SBV) pilot program is administered by the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Technology to Market program to give small businesses access to technical assistance from national labs. This assistance helps companies overcome critical technology and commercialization challenges to bring the next generation of clean energy technologies to market. The SunShot Initiative funds vouchers for solar projects under the SBV pilot, which are valued at between $50,000 and $300,000 each.
The SBV Pilot will allow small business to overcome challenges including prototyping, materials characterization, high-performance computations, modeling and simulations, and validation of technology performance. Vouchers are awarded on a competitive basis. Small businesses operating in the clean energy sector can request assistance from a national lab, and if accepted, a voucher is issued. The voucher acts as a coupon and allows the applicant to access a unique skill or facility at a lab to bring clean energy technologies to market. Assistance from labs varies depending on lab capabilities and the small business’ needs.
More information on this program can be found on the DOE website. For a more detailed explanation, contact MaintenX, an industry leader in Facilities Maintenance with the knowledge and experience to walk you through any scenario, including the SBV Pilot Program.
