- Commercial Buildings
- Energy Management
75F offers an easy-to-setup heating, ventilation, and air conditioning building management system (BMS) with the potential to cut install time and costs compared to traditional control systems. NREL is providing third-party validation of the energy savings estimated by 75F’s BMS platform by using building energy modeling and techno-economic analysis to provide estimated energy and monetary savings based on various factors, such as climate and building type.
- Housing
- Materials
By simply adding the AeroShield material into existing window manufacturing process, windows can be more efficient at insulating than current building code, saving energy and reduce carbon emissions each year. Additionally, AeroShield windows can save single-family detached homeowners on upfront window costs compared to triple-pane glass, as well as in construction associated costs.
- Agriculture
- Crop Protection
AgroSpheres is transforming crop protection with AgriCell, a powerful enabling technology for the efficient and improved use of synthetic chemicals and biologicals. AgriCell can mitigate the direct and indirect detrimental effects of chemical pesticides, with the goal of cutting their use by at least 50 percent. Collaborating with Drs. Dilip Shah and Kirk Czymmek from the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, AgroSpheres will investigate AgriCell interactions with host plant and pathogen cells, and explore whether encapsulating anti-fungal peptides increases their pesticide applications.
- Agriculture
- Crop Protection
Aker Technologies’ (Aker) TrueSense™ technology automates the crop-scouting process that captures and analyzes the presence and intensity of pests and pathogens below the crop canopy. For its IN2 project, the Danforth Center will be testing the accuracy and stability of Aker’s technology, comparing it against current state-of-the-art imaging methods for disease detection, and identifying disease signatures (e.g. particular fungi pathogens) that can be incorporated into future generations of TrueSense™ for enhanced field scouting.
- Housing
- Advanced Manufacturing and Construction Process Innovation
Blokable is developing a vertically integrated solution to create lower cost, high quality, housing at scale. Their unique process of partnering with market rate and not for profit land developers and service providers, and expertly engineered Blokable Building System (BBS) product, reduce the time and funds required to create and operate new, energy efficient multi-family housing.
- Commercial Buildings
- HVAC
Blue Frontier transforms traditional air conditioning (A/C) into a low-cost, behind-the-meter, flexible energy resource with double the energy efficiency of existing systems. This eliminates weather-driven building A/C peak demand and enables new designs for zero net energy buildings.
- Agriculture
- New Crops
CoverCress has developed a crop from pennycress that covers soil between growing cycles, protecting it from harsh conditions while producing a low-carbon intensity crop for renewable fuel and cooking oil. To enable the development of different varieties of pennycress, through IN2, the Danforth Center will be helping CoverCress shorten the breeding cycle of the crop and identifying specific viruses that may infect and reduce crop yield.
- Commercial Buildings
- Materials
Building envelope inefficiencies have a broad impact, due to the fact that the absorption and thermalization of solar energy by building infrastructure contributes to the urban heat island effect (UHIE). It is estimated that 5–10% of all summer electricity is used to compensate for the UHIE. Applying Cypris Materials heat-reflective coating could be tremendous for consumers and the environment by reducing summer energy use.
- Agriculture
- Precision Agriculture
EarthSense is changing the way crop breeders and farmers collect and use impactful data. EarthSense employs machine learning and robotics in the field to increase yields, eliminate resistant superweeds, and accelerate crop improvement. Collaborating with Drs. Todd Mockler and Andrea Eveland of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, EarthSense will deploy its robot to collect phenotype data in field settings, and develop additional algorithms to enable automated phenotyping for genome-wide association studies for advanced corn breeding.
- Housing
- Materials
EnKoat’s coatings collect, store, and release heat at a constant specific temperature to directly reduce the HVAC costs of residential and commercial buildings. These coatings can be uniquely tailored to different climatic conditions to maximize thermal efficiency and minimize energy consumption.
- Agriculture
- Crop Nutrition
Intrinsyx Bio plant probiotics increase crop yield, reduce excess fertilizer, and improve soil and water conditions. To actually work, the probiotics must successfully “colonize” a crop. As such, Intrinsyx’s IN2 project will focus on better understanding how to entice plants to accept the probiotics and what varieties of crop respond positively to the probiotic microbes.
- Commercial Buildings
- Energy Analysis
Ladybug Tools is a collection of computer applications that supports the design process for sustainable buildings and net-zero districts seeking to employ cutting-edge energy technologies. NREL is helping Ladybug Tools improve key back-end features of the OpenStudio energy modeling software development kit. These improvements will allow Ladybug’s JSON schema to support energy modeling in OpenStudio, including running models using cloud services, strengthening results by introducing error checking features, and developing custom data output formats.
- Agriculture
- Crop Nutrition
mobius is working to build a future in which organic waste streams are upcycled into valuable chemical building blocks. mobius creates naturally biodegradable and compostable materials that can replace controlled-release fertilizers for improved plant and soil health. Dr. Christopher N. Topp of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center will lead a collaboration with mobius to explore the impact of its renewable polymers and mineral nutrients on root architecture and function.
- Commercial Buildings
- Smart Glass
Next Energy Technologies (NEXT) offers low-cost, printable, transparent energy-harvesting coatings that are seamlessly integrated into windows to provide onsite renewable power. NREL is working with NEXT to identify potential energy savings and generation in commercial buildings, and to characterize balance of systems cost.
- Agriculture
- Crop Enhancement
Plastomics is developing a novel delivery technology to introduce beneficial traits into the chloroplast of plant cells, creating crops that can better withstand the pressure of insects, diseases, and weeds while delivering higher yields and environmental benefits. The Danforth Center will evaluate the fundamental molecular mechanisms of novel chloroplast-expressed RNAi traits to enable Plastomics to achieve more rapid and focused product development.
- Agriculture
- Crop Protection
Pluton Biosciences is supplying the agricultural industry with microbes that are specifically targeted at various pests. By using a micromining process, Pluton Biosciences can help offset biological resistance that has been building against current products. Pluton Biosciences will collaborate with Drs. Toni Kutchan and Brad Evans of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center to elucidate the identity and modes of action of biochemicals produced by the company’s anti-nemocidal microbes.
- Housing
- Advanced Manufacturing and Construction Process Innovation
Pre Framing is addressing the unprecedented shortage of labor in the construction wall framing industry by developing partially pre-fabricated collapsible walls that can be shipped directly to a job site. Their revolutionary software and hardware solution enables increased precision and efficiency with pre-cut and pre-marked studs held together with collapsible alloy strap fastened on the wood.
- Agriculture
- Crop Protection
RNAissance Ag produces safe, effective, and environmentally sustainable insecticide for precision pest management. Its technology disrupts the internal microbiome (gut) of targeted insect pests. Through its IN2 project, the Danforth Center will be improving and validating its current methods for identifying and targeting insect pests.
- Housing
- Energy Management
By retrofitting existing water heaters in apartments, Shifted Energy’s technology essentially transforms buildings into giant batteries by simply upgrading existing assets. This not only reduces green house gas (GHG) emissions, but also introduces grid energy storage that is much cheaper than conventional alternatives.
- Commercial Buildings
- HVAC
Software Motor Company (SMC) makes at reliable, efficient, and intelligent motor system that is less expensive to own and operate than its conventional alternative. Combined with IoT building automation technology, SMC’s Smart Motor System advances customer sustainability goals, reduces costs and minimizes maintenance calls.
- Agriculture
- Physical Infrastructure
SolGro has created a nanoparticle film for greenhouse windows that coverts the broad whole spectrum wavelength of sunlight into more efficient wavelengths that improve the process of photosynthesis. Its technology aims to help farmers increase crop productivity and improve the overall quality of their produce. Through IN2, the Danforth Center will help SolGro obtain data on how much its materials can improve plant growth and under what precise conditions.
- Housing
- Energy Management
Span’s panel replaces traditional electrical panels to become the center of connected power in a customer’s home. It provides all the safety features of a standard panel with added functionality and aesthetics designed for the modern home. Span’s complimentary software app lets users understand and control their home energy from anywhere and at any time.
- Housing
- Energy Management
STRATIS is an IoT Platform built for the complexities of multifamily and student housing. Users can visualize real-time and historic data to make information decisions related to energy usage, thus reducing waste, providing preventative alerts for facilities management, and increasing the quality of life for staff and residents.
- Housing
- Materials
Techstyle Materials’ technology is facilitating the development of better-insulated buildings. Their multifunctional material technology would be the first of its kind to protect a wall assembly by (passively) pumping water vapor out, while also regulating indoor humidity levels and heat flows with a thermochemical energy storage material.
- Agriculture
- New Crops
TerViva is commercializing climate-resilient pongamia trees. The pongamia is a hardy legume tree that produces an annual crop of beans with up to 10 times the yield of soy, for over 25 years. TerViva is increasing the global supply of plant protein and vegetable oil while restoring degraded agricultural land. TerViva will work with Dr. Allison Miller of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center to develop stress-resistant rootstocks, thereby expanding environments in which pongamia can be a viable high-yielding crop.
- Commercial Buildings
- Smart Glass
UbiQD is producing nanomaterials for energy harvesting that provide a simple, scalable, low-cost, and aesthetically pleasing approach to solar windows. NREL is conducting durability testing of UbiQD’s prototype devices using an appropriate industry standard for window technologies, as well as relevant standards from the photovoltaics industry. NREL will also conduct varied materials characterization studies related to fundamental properties of UbiQD quantum dots and Luminescent Solar Concentrator devices. Finally, to look at performance, NREL will conduct certified solar energy conversion efficiency measurements of UbiQD’s devices.
- Commercial Buildings
- Energy Storage
Yotta Energy is modular energy storage integrated with solar, designed to reduce cost and expand development of energy storage and grid resiliency on commercial buildings. NREL is characterizing the Yotta Solar’s technology performance as compared to a baseline unit, first in a laboratory environmental chamber, subjected to a range of ambient conditions, and then potentially in an outdoor installation.
Alumni Companies
- Alumnus
- Commercial Buildings
- HVAC
7AC Technologies offers a new approach to air conditioning technology, delivering extreme energy savings and the ability to maximize climate friendly refrigerants.
- Alumnus
- Commercial Buildings
- Water
The APANA water management system offers an innovative solution that goes beyond conservation and enables you to manage your water in real time.
- Alumnus
- Commercial Buildings
- Energy Management
EdgePower is a buildings energy management software company who were aquired by Just Energy.
- Alumnus
- Commercial Buildings
- Energy Storage
ESS Inc. manufactures low-cost, long-duration iron flow batteries for commercial and utility-scale energy storage applications requiring 4+ hours of flexible energy capacity.
- Alumnus
- Commercial Buildings
- Energy Management
Geli’s end-to-end software platform streamlines the energy storage development process, offering the industry’s only solution for design, automation, and management.
- Alumnus
- Commercial Buildings
- Energy Management
Go Electric delivers turnkey, distributed energy storage solutions that provide energy security and energy efficiency to facilities and the grid. Go Electric has achieved several customer contracts for microgrid solutions and was acquired by Saft, a subsidary of Total.
- Alumnus
- Commercial Buildings
- Smart Glass
Heliotrope Technologies is developing the next generation of nanocrystal technology smart glass that tints on demand.
- Alumnus
- Commercial Buildings
- Energy Management
Ibis Networks is a full-stack cleantech company that provides plug-level energy monitoring and control to solve energy and asset management problems for the enterprise.
- Alumnus
- Commercial Buildings
- Energy Management
J2 created FIN Framework, the most open software platform for building automation & IoT and was acquired by Siemens.
- Alumnus
- Commercial Buildings
- Data Infrastructure
LiquidCool Solutions are leaders in edge computing and designers of the world’s most efficient liquid cooling technology for electronic equipment.
- Alumnus
- Commercial Buildings
- Energy Analysis
Maalka is an open, energy efficiency platform designed to help cities and building owners easily meet their commercial benchmarking goals.
- Alumnus
- Commercial Buildings
- Energy Storage
NETenergy has created a thermal battery using its Black Ice technology, that works much like an electrical battery, except it stores thermal energy.
- Alumnus
- Commercial Buildings
- Smart Glass
Polyceed is developing low-cost plug-and-play smart windos for energy efficient buildings, homes, and smart cities.
- Alumnus
- Commercial Buildings
- Energy Management
PowerFlex Systems provides affordable large-scale electric vehicle charging solutions for work places. It has been acquired by EDF Renewables North America.
- Alumnus
- Commercial Buildings
- Energy Analysis
simuwatt has created buildee, a cloud-based platform that connects data and applications, bringing together valuable building data for retrofit decision-making.
- Alumnus
- Commercial Buildings
- HVAC
ThermoLift’s TCHP™ natural gas-powered air conditioner and cold-climate heat pump. It combines heating, cooling, and hot water delivery into a single appliance utilizing a proven thermodynamic cycle to improve system efficiency.
- Alumnus
- Commercial Buildings
- Energy Management
Transformative Wave is a leading energy efficiency innovator in HVAC retrofit and building automation solutions that will meet you where you’re at in your journey to achieve energy efficiency.
- Alumnus
- Commercial Buildings
- Smart Glass
VG SmartGlass (previously SmarterShade) delivers instant privacy, glare, and energy control built into a window.
- Alumnus
- Commercial Buildings
- Energy Analysis
Whisker Labs develops sensing and software technology for home intelligence and was acquired by Earth Networks, which operates the world’s largest weather observation
network.