The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) has awarded a grant of $1.5 million over 3 years to the Delaware Valley Industrial Resources Center and the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Partnership to encourage expanded manufacturing of energy-efficient building technologies.
The grant complements a larger U.S. Department of Energy project announced August 24, that provides up to $122 million to the Pennsylvania State University for an Energy Innovation Hub. To be located at the Philadelphia Navy Yard Clean Energy campus, the Hub will focus on developing energy-efficient building designs that will save energy and cut pollution.
According to MEP, this project represents the first time that federal, state, and local public and private resources will be pooled to create a formal applied research/manufacturing cluster that spans from the lab bench, through production to implementation.
"Expanding the capabilities of U.S. manufacturers to respond to the market opportunities resulting from the development of new energy efficient building technologies is key to ensuring the linkage between R&D and commercial application," said Roger Kilmer, director of NIST MEP.
DVIRC's and NJMEP's role will be to connect manufacturers, specifically small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs), to the project at all levels, including R&D, design and testing of new products, materials, technologies, and systems, and, more importantly, commercializing those opportunities for business growth and job creation.
The Energy Innovation Hub will pursue a research, development and demonstration program targeting technologies for single buildings and district-wide systems.
The DVIRC in collaboration with its sister-center, the NJMEP, will leverage their knowledge of and relationships with region companies to identify technologies such as sensors, new building materials, and computer simulation tools developed by the Energy Innovation Hub, and translate them into components they can license, develop and manufacture.
