The Shell GameChanger™ Accelerator Powered by NREL (GCxN) today announced the second round of startup companies to participate in its cleantech accelerator. The five participating companies were selected through a multistage competitive evaluation and are focused on advancing novel utility grid or electric vehicle charging technologies – the areas of focus identified for this cohort.

GCxN is a multimillion-dollar, multiyear cleantech accelerator that works to identify and advance the next generation of transformative energy technologies. It partners early-stage companies with experts from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Shell’s GameChanger program to provide promising startups with access to financial resources, state-of-the-art facilities and world-class technical experts. The assistance is designed to help companies de-risk technology development while accelerating their paths to market.

Each participating startup will receive as much as $250,000 in non-dilutive funding to aid in development and demonstration of its technology, with the opportunity for future follow-on funding, in addition to access to expertise and laboratory capabilities at both NREL and Shell.

Companies selected for the second cohort of GCxN are:

Grid of the Future

• Hygge Power (Boulder, Colo.): building a suite of smart-home energy storage products that act as intelligent, uninterruptible power supplies for consumer electronics and appliances.
• Span (San Francisco): developing a software and hardware platform that integrates sensing, actuation and logic in a single device, making it easier for homeowners to install energy applications like solar panels, batteries and electric-car charging.

Electric Vehicle Fast Charging

• Intertie (Sausalito, Calif.): developing modular technology that combines EV fast charging with battery storage located under the charger, allowing safe high-power delivery from a small footprint using a low-power grid connection.
• AllCell Technologies (Chicago): advancing an intelligent battery thermal-management technology for use in lithium-ion battery packs for smart grid, autonomous vehicle and other electric mobility applications.
• Microgrid Labs (Boulder, Colo.): creating a software package for modeling, simulation and optimization of vehicle battery and charging infrastructure.

To participate in GCxN, companies must be recommended by a member of the GCxN Pipeline Partners network (cleantech incubators, accelerators and universities), with finalists selected after rigorous review by technology experts at NREL and Shell. The first cohort of GCxN companies, focused on grid technologies and long duration energy storage, was selected in December 2018 and they are currently validating their technologies with researchers at NREL and Shell.

“We’re very excited to welcome a new cohort of clean technology start-ups,” said GCxN program manager at NREL, Adam Duran. “The grid of the future will need to be flexible, scalable and optimized to handle a wide variety of new inputs and outputs. Among the complexities will be electric vehicle integration. The companies we’ve selected for our second cohort bring creative and viable technologies and are rising to the challenge.”

Haibin Xu, Shell’s GCxN program manager, said, “This exceptional cohort of five companies builds on the strong foundation of the first cohort participants, who are already making substantial progress with Shell and NREL in testing their game-changing ideas. Each and all of the five companies in this new round have innovative solutions that can contribute to re-shaping the energy market. We are excited to be working with them to bring their disruptive technologies to life.”

For more information, visit GCxNREL.com.

About GCxN

The Shell GameChanger™ Accelerator powered by NREL (GCxN) is a new multi-million dollar, multiyear program developed in collaboration between Shell GameChanger and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to discover and advance emerging clean technologies with the potential to dramatically alter the future global energy landscape. GCxN identifies promising startup companies through an ecosystem of more than 60 cleantech business incubators, accelerators and universities, providing access to up to $250,000 in non-dilutive funding in the form of technical experts to develop and demonstrate new energy technologies. GCxN is made possible by funding through Shell GameChanger. GCxN is administered by NREL, located in Golden, Colo.