Brownstein has successfully represented and advised five companies recently awarded grants through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Together, they will receive more than half of the $564 million in ARRA funding available for Department of Energy (DOE) programs.
Amyris Biotechnologies. $35 million for sorghum-based biofuels.
Brownstein represented this leading San Francisco Bay Area biofuels and bioproducts company in successfully obtaining and negotiating a $35 million cooperative agreement with DOE to expand an Emeryville, California biorefinery that uses sorghum to create renewable diesel and other chemical and pharmaceutical products. Brownstein is also assisting Amyris in developing cooperative research agreements with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado.
ZeaChem Inc. $31 million to develop high-yield ethanol from cellulose.
Brownstein represents ZeaChem, Inc. a Colorado biofuel company that is pioneering advanced cellulosic ethanol, fuels and chemical technology using a hybrid combination of biochemical and thermochemical processing steps. With the firm's assistance, ZeaChem negotiated a $31 million cooperative agreement with DOE for developing a high-yield cellulosic ethanol commercialization process.
Sun Catalytix Corporation. $4.1 million for affordable energy from water and sunlight.
Sun Catalytix in Cambridge, Massachusetts develops breakthrough renewable energy storage and fuels solutions using a unique water-splitting catalyst discovered in the MIT laboratory of Professor Daniel Nocera (Science, July 2008). This catalyst employs earth-abundant elements, eliminating costly precious metals, to generate hydrogen and oxygen from readily available pure or impure water sources. Brownstein helped Sun Catalytix secure a DOE Advanced Research Projects Agency (Energy ARPA-E) inaugural grant of $4.1 million for this breakthrough research. The company was one of 37 selected from 3,700 applicants.
Celgard. $49 million for advanced lithium battery technology.
Celgard is a global leader in the development and production of specialty microporous membranes and one of the largest suppliers to the lithium battery industry. The company engaged Brownstein attorney John Herrick, former chief counsel for the DOE’s field office in Golden, Colo., to navigate the complex application process to secure part of the $2.4 billion in funding allotted by ARRA to DOE for their Electric Drive Vehicle Battery and component Manufacturing Initiative. The DOE awarded Celgard a $49 million grant, the single largest investment ever made in advanced battery technology.
NV Energy. $138 million for smart grid technology.
With Brownstein's assistance, NV Energy achieved its goal of winning a grant to implement smart grid technology across the state of Nevada. The power utility won $138 million in federal stimulus funds for a three-year, $298 million project to replace every electric meter in Nevada with a smart meter that will let consumers control their energy use 24/7. The grant was part of $3.4 billion in government funds given to projects aimed at modernizing the nation’s power grid. |