Vice President Joe Biden At NREL: Announces 'America's Next Top Energy Innovator' In Boulder

Biden Awards Boulder Tech Firm High Honor

Vice President Joe Biden visited the National Renewable Energy Labratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado today where he announced the first agreement under the Obama Administration’s “America’s Next Top Innovator” Challenge. A Boulder-based start-up tech firm, e-Chromic, won the distinct honor announced by Vice President Biden this morning.

e-Chromic will use an electromagnetic technology developed by NREL to create a new thin film window material that reflects sunlight on demand, making windows more energy efficient while reducing cooling costs for consumers. Users of the technology will be able to control the transparency based on time of day, temperature or exposure to sunlight and have the potential to reduce cooling costs by 25 - 30 percent for commercial buildings during hotter months, according to a White House press release.

“Now, more than ever, America’s future competitiveness depends on our ability to innovate and our capacity to live up to our rich history of technological advancement,” said Vice President Biden. “Through this kind of public-private collaboration we are bringing groundbreaking technology out of the lab and into the marketplace and our lives.”

The “America’s Next Top Energy Innovator” challenge was announced by the Department of Energy in late March as part of the Obama Administration’s “Startup America Initiative” to accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation.

To learn more about the Department of Energy’s Next Top Energy Innovator program check out the Energy Innovation Portal website.

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