U.S. DOE to give renewable startups access to labs

LOS ANGELES, Feb 27 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Energy said on Wednesday it selected three venture capital firms to participate in a program that will give renewable energy start-ups access to the federal government's state-of-the-art laboratories.

The new Entrepreneur in Residence program is aimed at accelerating commercialization of technologies that promise to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the DOE said.

"The Department is leveraging private-sector expertise in new ways to capitalize on cutting-edge technologies that are ripe for commercialization," the DOE's assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy, Alexander Karsner, said in a statement.

The venture capital firms that will sponsor and choose participants in the program are Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers and Foundation Capital, both based in Menlo Park, California, as well as Chicago-based ARCH Venture Partners.

Kleiner Perkins will work with the department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, ARCH will work with the Sandia National Laboratory, and Foundation Capital will work with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Under the program, each lab will host one entrepreneur in residence at a time and DOE will support the work with up to $100,000 in funding.

Each venture capital firm will match those funds and will negotiate a license to use the technology. The sponsors will also form and finance a business based on the licensed technology, DOE said.