Stimulus for Solar Power's Ground Zero

On a recent tour of the lab, I found the staff interested, transparent and doing some dang interesting, relatively commercial work.

Take the once-for-big-business-only world of solar power. The NREL is working on improving solar voltaic efficiency on a number of fronts. And the lab gets major style points for making the process of licensing their new technologies relatively rational. Want to develop a solar array, for example? Simply go to the technology transfer area of the NREL Web site and look for the patent, contact or business process that most interests you. And start making calls.

"NREL has a long history of handing technology off to the private sector," says George Douglas, the media relations manager who led my tour. "It's a comfortable role for the lab."

Many already have. Take San Francisco-based Greenvolts, a hip solar power company specializing in a form of concentrating photovoltaic cells that promise to offer affordable solar power. And, sure enough, at the end of March the operation announced new technology it got through its relationship with NREL. First Solar(FSLR Quote) and Evergreen Solar(ESLR Quote), look out.

Now, working with government labs is not child's play. It's no place for small-business wannabes. It takes real cash, expertise and guts. And I have heard plenty of grumbling from small companies as they struggle to work with what is essentially an arm of the government. But considering the Obama Administration has committed itself to spending what I reckon is $1.5 billion a day to get the economy working again, technological meeting points that shuttle new tools between the public and private sector are increasingly important.