Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and two other labs partly managed by the University of California have been selected to receive $2.5 million from the Department of Energy to commercialize post-research energy ideas, department officials announced Monday.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will receive nearly $1.5 million, while Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory will each receive close to $500,000 and $600,000, respectively.

In total, the DOE will give out roughly $7 million to seven of its national laboratories.

The funding aims to speed the transition of post-research clean energy technology ideas from labs into the commercial marketplace, according to Drew Bond, the DOE's director of commercialization and deployment for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

The funding will help bridge the gap between the Berkeley lab's scientific discoveries and the final marketplace product, said Cheryl Fragiadakis, head of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Management department.

"It will allow (the Berkeley lab) to advance lab technologies in partnership with private sector companies that can bring the technologies to market," Fragiadakis said.

Researchers at the Berkeley lab are now hoping to be able to commercialize ideas of energy efficiency, photovoltaic technology, wind energy, batteries, advanced geothermal technology and biofuels, Fragiadakis said.

Bond said one of the department's primary objectives is to create products that would reduce society's dependency on oil and the need for energy as a whole.

"This is certainly not going to solve all our energy problems, but it is one of our initiatives that I think will help," he said.

The labs were selected to receive funding by a merit review committee based on good commercialization track records and strong proposals submitted by laboratory technology transfer managers.

Bond said he thought the department's funding would be a reward to taxpayers for their financial contributions.

"(Energy efficiency and renewable energy) are wise investments for the future of our country," Bond said. "I also think it's important that we as taxpayers get a return in the form of better technologies and an improvement in the quality of our lives."

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