SHAHEEN: Small business R&D funds strategic investment in energy efficiency

(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), one of the lead Congressional advocates responsible for long-term Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding and co-author of the bipartisan Shaheen-Portman energy efficiency bill, applauded the Department of Energy’s (DOE) extension of SBIR research and development grants toward small businesses in the energy technology fields.  New Hampshire-based Subsurface Insights, LLC and Creare Incorporated will each receive SBIR grants aimed at supporting innovation and job creation.

Shaheen, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, was a leader in the long Congressional fight for the six-year SBIR reauthorization, which allows small companies to compete for federal research and development dollars. The recent DOE investment will help small businesses with promising ideas to develop clean energy technologies with a strong potential for commercialization and job creation.

“The SBIR funds awarded are a crucial, strategic investment in New Hampshire’s economy that will continue the Granite State’s leadership in energy innovation and create jobs,” Shaheen said. “These grants will invest in one of the most promising sectors of our economy and will help promote energy efficiency throughout the country, which is the fastest, most cost-efficient way to tackle our energy needs and keep our economy competitive.”

Earlier this week, Shaheen’s bipartisan energy efficiency legislation cleared the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources with strong bipartisan support. The Shaheen-Portman Bill, co-authored with Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio), would promote a deficit-neutral framework designed to reduce barriers for private sector energy users and drive adoption of off-the-shelf efficiency technologies among the largest energy consumers.  In tandem with Shaheen’s earlier efforts to reauthorize SBIR funding, the securement of Energy Department grants and Shaheen-Portman legislation are reflective of her continued efforts toward job creation, innovation and promotion of a domestic, clean energy economy.

“Creare is very pleased to receive two DOE SBIR awards aimed at development of advanced, clean energy-related technologies,” said Bob Kline-Schoder, President of Creare in Hanover, NH.   "These technologies have great potential to enable low-cost power generation from environmentally-safe power plants and to reduce the cost of carbon-dioxide capture and sequestration.  The SBIR program, whose recent reauthorization was championed by Senator Shaheen, continues to play an important role in allowing Creare to create high technology jobs and new business ventures in New Hampshire.”

SBIR was enacted in 1982 as part of the Small Business Innovation Development Act.  Since then, New Hampshire firms have received over $330 million in research grants through the SBIR program. The DOE SBIR awards will go toward 88 businesses in 28 states, totaling over $16 million in investments.