NJ awards $748K in seed funding to cleantech startups

The Murphy administration is awarding a combined $748,000 in grant “seed funding” to 10 cleantech startups developing technology to recapture or cut down on carbon emissions.

Known formally as the Clean Tech Send Grant Program, the roughly $75,000 grants will “help propel the projects created by these 10 startups toward commercialization and into the hands of consumers within the worldwide clean technology marketplace,” reads a prepared statement from Gunjan Doshi, head of the state Commission on Science, Innovation and Technology, which oversees the program alongside the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

Each firm will be able to use the funds to pay for work toward their proof of concept and prototyping stages, allowing them to capture investment dollars needed to take the product off the ground.

Gov. Phil Murphy, who is seeking reelection this November, rolled out a goal in 2018 to have the state totally reliant on clean, and renewable energy by 2050.

That includes thousands of megawatts of offshore wind, a ramped up solar energy incentive program, and the addition of 330,000 personal-use electric cars by 2035.

“Startups within our innovation economy play a key part in creating clean technologies that will enable us to reach the … goal of 100% clean energy by 2050,” Joseph Fiordaliso, who heads the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, said in a statement.

The NJBPU is overseeing many aspects of the offshore wind, solar energy and electric car programs, and covered the tab of the $748,000 in seed grant funding.

Here’s the full breakdown of grant funding:

• $74,969 for Princeton-based Andluca Technologies to develop “solar-powered smart glass technology.”
• $73,000 for Arbela Laboratories in Randolph to create a methanol-fed Pichia platform.
• $75,000 for Eion NJ Corp. in Princeton to develop a fine-grained mineral that captures and stores carbon when used with agricultural soils.
• $74,995 to Farm to Flame Energy in Kearny, which is developing biomass-fed electricity generation.
• $75,000 for Green Blu in Hamilton, which is developing solar thermal-powdered brine separation for desalination, agriculture and water industries.
• $74,939 for NextGen Battery Technologies in Somerset, which is developing “a high-voltage, non-flammable solid-state electrolyte for lithium batteries.”
• $75,000 to Princeton NuEnergy in Bordentown to develop a battery-recycling technology for lithium-ion batteries.
• $75,000 for RenewCO2 in Cranford for converting carbon dioxide to “plastic precursors and other value-added chemicals conventionally sourced from fossil fuels.”
• $75,000 for SunRay Scientific in Eatontown to develop adhesive for electronics and semiconductor packaging.
• $75,000 for WeSolar CSP in Princeton to develop “scalable and modular” local solar power grids.