Argonne launching first technology incubator for clean energy ideas

Ideas for the clean energy of the future could find a launchpad at a new program at Argonne National Laboratory near Darien.

Chain Reaction Innovators is seeking science-minded entrepreneurs with ideas who want to connect with expert researchers, world-class technology and mentorship at the laboratory to develop those ideas.

With roughly $3 million from the U.S. Department of Energy and $1 million from Argonne, the program expects to support about a dozen projects that could "change the landscape of energy," said Mark Johnson, director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Manufacturing office.

The program is a necessary resource because clean energy is slow and costly to develop; venture capitalists are not funding energy ideas like they did a decade ago, said David Danielson, assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy with the Department of Energy.

"Energy doesn't fit their model. It takes too long," he said. "We could have a lost generation of clean energy technology entrepreneurs when we need them the most."

Chain Reaction Innovators will be Argonne's first technology incubator, and it aims to have its first participant researching and developing by this fall, said Andreas Roelofs, director of the program and of Argonne's Nano Design Works.

Argonne is the second of the 17 national laboratories to host such an incubator after the idea got started two years ago at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in California.

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