Sandia spotlighted for renewable energy work

The desert might not seem like the best place to launch start-up companies that build living, artificial reefs to protect coastal communities from storm surges. But WaveWise Technologies was one of the new businesses that participated in a U.S. Department of Energy Boost Showcase, a program led by Sandia National Laboratories.

Sandia this week hosted the showcase, which pitted teams of entrepreneurs against each other.

Using intellectual property from DOE labs, 12 teams competed in the hopes of creating a successful business. A crucial step was a virtual and in-person contest at Q Station in Albuquerque on Tuesday night, where the teams made short pitches and then fielded questions from an expert panel. The teams had been working for 16 weeks to craft their business and commercialization plans. Sandia leads the program, along with other DOE labs, plants and sites and industry partner FedTech.

This year, Sandia and organizers focused on a diverse collection of regional issues, from coastal erosion to renewable energy and energy transmission.

"Industrial heat accounts for 25% of global energy consumption and 20% of carbon emissions," Yung Chen, the founder of Dune Energy, said to a crowded room Tuesday night. "What if manufacturing instead can use renewable electricity?"

Chen's company is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is seeking to store and provide heat for industrial work by storing heat from intermittent wind and solar energy in sand and then providing that heat to industry.

Crystal Shamblee, a FedTech senior associate, said there was an application process and FedTech and Sandia put together teams to make sure there was a technical lead, business and industry experience and entrepreneurial experience on all the teams, which were made of two to four people.

"We want them to spread (the technology) out of the labs," she said.

Some of the companies who competed had local engineers and entrepreneurs, and others were from other states.

Olawale Aroyewun was one of the founders of WaveWise Technologies. He's an engineer who has worked with semiconductors. He moved to Albuquerque in 2020 to work for Intel and recently left the company and is working on his second startup.

The markets he's seeking to tap into are coastal resilience, renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure sectors.

WaveWise uses a FlexiWave Harvester to capture the ocean's kinetic energy and transform it into clean, sustainable power to deploy during emergencies. The artificial reef structure of the harvester creates a biodiverse habitat and reduces the impact of sea level rise, tidal surges and extreme weather events.

"It's been sensational to be part of the ecoysystem ... of fellow entrepreneurs," Aroyewun said.

Ultimately, Fluid Photonics Corp. was selected as the winner by judges, which came with a $2,000 prize. The company uses a new water quality monitoring tool to detect metal concentrations in water, offering a solution for environmental monitoring, industrial applications and public safety.

Albuquerque-based GridFlow, a battery storage company, won the event last year.

"This is so important because it is providing a platform to pull the technology out of the labs and support it actually being commercialized, which is great for technology growth and business growth and also to solve problems in our communities," said Nora Meyers Sackett, one of the judges and the director of the Office of Strategy, Science & Technology for the New Mexico Economic Development Department.

PeraWatt Energy was tapped as the winner by the audience, which came with a $1,500 prize. The company is attempting to use soft magnetic material to improve power electronics and electric motor manufacturing by using materials that are more efficient and cost-effective than the more traditional materials like silicon steel and ferrites.

David Kistin, the manager of technology and economic development at Sandia, said the teams that competed in Albuquerque had finished a 16-week program and decided the team members would stay together and continue their efforts.

"Sometimes people came in with a group and sometimes it was like an arranged marriage," he said. "These are all the companies that have made it through and decided to stay together and form companies."

Kistin said Albuquerque and New Mexico stand to benefit by the fact that Sandia leads the Boost program.

"We want to let people know that if you're starting a company and (are) looking at water challenges, transmission challenges, this is a place to come and do business," he said. "The ancilliary benefit of hosting the program is that homefully for the companies theat are not based in New Mexico realize this is a good place to be working."

Dan Sanchez, who is on the senior leaders team from the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees Sandia, said the Albuquerque event marked a launching off point for the companies and not the culmination of their work.

"What you bring to help us helps our nation by strengthening our nation's economic security is amazing," he said. "Tech transfer is mainstream in our mission space. This is exactly what we're supposed to be doing, reinvesting federal dollars ... to help people like you to be successful with your endeavors."

Kirsten Hillyer, the commercialization program manager at DOE's Office of Technology Transition, said the program aims to make the path to be an entrepreneur smoother.

"The road from a great idea to a proven product is often bumpy and riddled with potholes," she said. "OTT designs an extremely broad range of programs to help researchers and entrepreneurs avoid and get past these roadblocks."