Clean energy gets a cash boost

The U.S. Department of Energy announced that it will provide up to $7 million in grants to help speed the commercialization of clean-energy technologies developed at federal labs, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory will get $1.5 million from the special fund.

Other national labs receiving funds are Pacific Northwest in Washington State, Lawrence Berkeley in California, Argonne in Illinois, Los Alamos in New Mexico, Sandia in New Mexico and Lawrence Livermore in California.

In a press statement, the DOE said the funding would help "post-research technologies" move into the commercial marketplace by providing funding for prototype development and other activities before they're ready for venture capital.

John Mizrock, the DOE's principal deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency, made the announcement.

"Our DOE national laboratories are responsible for incredible innovation, from new efficiency technologies and biofuels to solar energy," Mizrock said in a statement distributed to the news media. "It is absolutely critical that we move clean-energy technologies to market at a rate and scale that is commensurate to the magnitude of the problem."